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40 verbatim mandatory provisions from AO 2005-18 PROCEDURES FOR COURT APPOINTED PRIVATE ATTORNEYS DUE PROCESS COSTS.
First Judicial Circuit. Check the order's own effective and rescission dates before relying on it. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
Verbatim from the order's own text layer, harvested 2026-07-24; whitespace normalised only. No OCR was used. Only sentences containing mandatory language (shall, must, may not, no later than, within N) are reproduced — the full document is in custody and is the controlling text. • All court appointed counsel and private attorneys with clients found indigent for costs shall familiarize themselves with the policies, procedures, and proposed contracts of the Justice Administrative Commission (JAC). • All court appointed counsel and private attorneys with clients found indigent for costs shall familiarize themselves with the terms of this Administrative Order and any subsequent amendments, revisions or relevant memoranda as are placed on the official website for the First Judicial Circuit at www.firstjudicialcircuit.org or made available in the Office of the Chief Judge. 3. • Attorneys accepting court appointments must sign a contract with the JAC to receive compensation for court appointed work performed in the First Judicial Circuit. 4. • This Administrative Order shall be an attachment to any contract executed between the JAC and a court appointed private attorney for court appointed work performed in the First Judicial Circuit. -- 1 of 8 -- 5. • Attorneys who enter into contracts with the JAC shall provide the First Judicial Circuit’s Court Administration office with a copy of the contract between the attorney and the JAC. 6. • Court appointed attorneys may bill and shall be compensated for payment of attorney’s fees. • Attorneys shall bill in tenth of an hour increments (e.g. 0.1, 0.2, etc.). 7. • Due process costs exclusive of court appointed attorney fees shall be compensated pursuant to the attached Article V Indigent Services Committee First Judicial Circuit Approved Rates for Due Process Costs Effective July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006 (Attachment 1 hereto). • Private court-appointed counsel or an attorney for a defendant indigent for costs must make a motion to the trial court and obtain court approval prior to incurring expert witness expenses for which the State will be responsible except that counsel may retain a confidential expert for the purpose of conducting a competency evaluation without pre-approval. • The reference to any “cap” in Attachment 1 shall not preclude the trial court from authorizing payment in excess of such “cap” if it determines the payment justified. 10. • Court appointed counsel must make a motion to the trial court and obtain a court order to obtain compensation for private investigation costs. • A cap of $500.00 is established which may not be exceeded unless approved in advance by motion to and order by the trial court. 12. • Prior to making travel arrangements, attorneys must access the JAC website for necessary pre-travel documentation and other pertinent travel information. 14. • Court appointed counsel shall not be reimbursed for the following costs: a. • Process must be served by the Sheriff unless the court, for extraordinary and unusual circumstances, enters an order permitting employment of a certified process server. g. • The photocopying log (Attachment 3 hereto) must be completed for each copy made and the log submitted to JAC with a request for payment. 15. • In order to obtain payment in excess of said caps, court appointed counsel must comply with the procedures established by the JAC and the Chief Financial Officer of the State of Florida as set forth in the Chief Financial Officer Memorandum No. 04 (attached hereto as Attachment 4 and incorporated by reference). 16. • Attorneys approved by the Committee to serve in a division assignment are authorized to enter into contracts with the JAC for the respective division assignments and the memoranda or any subsequent amendments shall be made a part of any such contract. -- 3 of 8 -- ATTORNEY REGISTRY LIST 18. • Pursuant to §27.42, Florida Statutes, the First Judicial Circuit ISC has the responsibility for establishing attorney registry lists [hereinafter referred to as “ARL”] for conflict counsel to handle cases on which the public defender must withdraw as a result of ethical conflict. • Utilization of the ARL shall occur when the division conflict attorney cannot accept a case because of ethical conflict or other good cause, including case overload. • The list shall be utilized in the event that a particular division does not have a division conflict attorney. • Judges shall not assign a case to an attorney who is not on an Attorney Registry List established by the Chief Judge. • The motion must be specific in stating the basis for the Court to find exceptional circumstances and be accompanied by a proposed order that sufficiently identifies the case for the JAC. • A copy of the motion shall be provided to the presiding judge and the office of the State Attorney and sufficient copies of the proposed order with pre- addressed, stamped envelopes shall be provided for the distribution of the order. • If the attorney’s representation has not reached that point then the attorney will not be entitled to any compensation for that case. • If a court appointed attorney is discharged from representation of a client based upon a court determination of ineffective or incompetent representation, the attorney will not be entitled to compensation. • In the event an attorney is court appointed prior to formal charges being brought against the defendant and the State of Florida files a dismissal then the court appointed attorney may seek compensation if the attorney engaged in -- 5 of 8 -- meaningful activity resulting in the decision of the State not to bring formal charges. • An attorney who is compensated at an hourly rate shall be entitled to bill for the time the lawyer has in the case at the time of withdrawal pursuant to the provisions of this subsection. • If and when the defendant is apprehended, the original attorney shall be reappointed, if available, and the attorney may be compensated for further time put into the case subject to the statutory cap and the established procedures for compensation exceeding said cap. • Private court appointed counsel in dependency cases shall be compensated at the rate of $700/case and $50/post-disposition hearing. • The appointed attorney shall file a motion before the Court and obtain an order authorizing the full compensation, otherwise the attorney will be entitled only to the amount of $50 for each post-disposition hearing. • In cases controlled under this subsection the attorney will not be entitled to bill $50 for the Judicial Review that triggers the compensation of $700. • Private court appointed counsel in Parental Notice of Abortion Act cases shall be compensated at the rate of $500/case. • Compensation for other civil cases shall be at the rate of $60/hour for out-of- court time and $80/hour for in-court time. • Private attorneys who accept court appointments on appeals cases of any type in the First Judicial Circuit shall be compensated at the rate of $60/hour. • Privately retained counsel must submit a written motion to be heard on calendar (not exparte) that includes the following information: • (7) An indigency affidavit utilizing the form approved by the Florida Supreme Court must be attached to the motion. • (4) That counsel must adhere to all fee schedules for due process providers approved by the First Judicial Circuit’s Indigent Services Committee. • Once the Court finds the client of the privately retained counsel indigent for costs, counsel must comply with any and all requirements as delineated in the applicable Florida Statutes, Memoranda issued by the State of Florida, Chief Financial Officer, the Justice Administrative Commission’s (JAC) policies and procedures set forth in the standard contracts prepared and published by the JAC, Office of the State Court Administrator’s policies and procedures, and the applicable First Judicial Circuit Administrative Orders. • This order shall take effect immediately and shall remain in effect until further order of the Court.
All court appointed counsel and private attorneys with clients found indigent for costs shall familiarize themselves with the policies, procedures, and proposed contracts of the Justice Administrative Commission (JAC).
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 1cd7c89b609ba52c6643a78dd0b05d1de32a0657a8fbed7dc863daed23804d96 (161566 bytes). BenchPath harvested this circuit itself because no research corpus existed for it. Extraction is conservative: mandatory-language sentences only, so this rule is a faithful subset of the order, never a summary of it.
The 17th Circuit's circuit-wide AI disclosure/certification mandate (Jan 2026, twice amended) was VACATED in its entirety effective June 15, 2026 by Chief Judge Phillips's AO 2026-19-Gen, expressly citing the statewide framework (AOSC26-12; Rule 2.515(d)(2), SC2026-0673). Several division procedure pages still cite the vacated order.
Every circuit-civil case reviewed within 120 days of commencement and assigned a track (complex, streamlined, or general); case management orders required; firm continuance policy; sanctions for missed deadlines. Rescinds AO 21-09.
Circuit-civil hearing-availability standards: motion calendars ~2 weeks from request; 15-30 min special sets within 45-60 days; longer special sets scale.