43 verbatim mandatory provisions from AO 2009-69 Certification of Civil Process Servers.
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. • Each applicant shall complete under oath a copy of the application form provided by the Escambia County Bureau of Community Corrections, hereinafter Bureau of Community Corrections, and submit the application together with an application fee of $300.00 to the Bureau of Community Corrections. 2. • Each applicant shall obtain and file with his/her application a Certificate of Good Conduct on a form or in a format approved by the Bureau of Community Corrections. • The Certificate of Good Conduct must be obtained from the Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit, M.C. • Each applicant shall be examined for knowledge of the applicable laws pertaining to service of process and conduct of a certified process server on a written test administered by the Bureau of Community Corrections and must pass the written test before processing of the application will begin. • After successful completion of the written examination, each applicant shall file with the Bureau of Community Corrections a bond in the amount of $5,000.00 issued by a surety company authorized to do business in the State of Florida. 5. • Upon certification of the applicant by the Chief Judge, the applicant shall take, execute and file an Oath of Office with the Bureau of Community Corrections. -- 1 of 5 -- 6. • Upon certification of the applicant by the Chief Judge, the applicant shall be issued an identification card pursuant to the form prescribed by §48.29(5)(b), Florida Statutes. • An identification card fee of $35.00 shall be paid by the process server for replacement of the identification card due to loss. 7. • Application must be made for renewal on or before the expiration of the applicant’s certification by administrative order. • The fee for certification renewal shall be $200.00, payable to the Bureau of Community Corrections. 8. • Each Administrative Order entered to certify an individual for process service shall be filed with the Clerk of Court for each county within the First Judicial Circuit. • The Bureau of Community Corrections shall maintain an accurate, complete and current list of all process servers certified by the Chief Judge. 9. • The “return of service of process” shall be made by a certified process server on a form approved by the Bureau of Community Corrections. 10. • Failure of any certified process server to renew his/her certification annually as provided in this order, and to pay an annual renewal fee at the time of such renewal, shall result in the process server’s removal from the list of certified process servers and immediate revocation of his/her certification without notice or hearing. 11. • The Chief Judge shall conduct a hearing at which the process server may appear and offer evidence. • The hearing shall be summary in nature, and the formal rules of evidence shall not apply. • The First Judicial Circuit Process Server Grievance Review Committee shall hereinafter be referred to as “the Committee.” 15. • The Committee shall consist of those persons designated by the Chief Judge of the First Judicial Circuit to serve on the Committee. • Any member resigning from the Committee shall advise the Chief Judge of the Circuit of his/her resignation in writing. 16. • Any conflict of interest urged by a party to the proceeding shall be noticed in the final report. • Complaints received in the Office of the Chief Judge shall be forwarded to the Committee by the Chief Judge for review. 18. • The Committee shall meet periodically, in its discretion, as necessary to handle the grievance complaints and other business before the Committee. 19. • The Committee shall mail a notice of meeting not less than fifteen (15) days prior to the meeting to the complainant and the affected process server advising them of the time and date of the meeting. • The notice shall be signed by a member of the Committee as the Chief Judge’s designee. • Service of the notice of the meeting shall be effected by mailing the notice, first class U.S. • The notice of the Committee’s meeting shall be on a form prescribed by the Committee, and shall be in the form of an order of referral from the Chief Judge of the matter to the Committee for a review under these rules. 22. • The meeting shall commence promptly at the appointed time and place. -- 3 of 5 -- 23. • The place of the meeting shall be in the discretion of the Committee, and may be held anywhere within the Circuit. 24. • The Committee proceedings shall be informal and shall not rely strictly on the Rules of Evidence. 26. • In the event either party to the complaint does not appear at the appointed time and place for the meeting, that party’s non-appearance shall be noted in the Committee’s report and the Committee will continue the meeting and take evidence from the party present toward making a recommendation accordingly. 27. • The Committee shall advise the parties at the commencement of the meeting that it is not the Committee’s position to make any adjudication or to issue or enforce any sanction against either the complainant or the process server. • The parties shall further be advised it is not within the scope of the Committee’s authority to make any finding or recommendation as to whether any service effected binds the party to the jurisdiction of the court, requires a response to the paper served, or has any other substantive legal effect. • The parties shall be advised that the function of the Committee is to make a recommendation as requested by the Chief Judge as to whether the complaint of conduct by the process server constitutes malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, or incompetence as set forth in Chapter 48, Florida Statutes. 28. • If there are more than two parties involved in a proceeding, the Committee shall have discretion to otherwise apportion time, and shall advise the parties at the start of the meeting. • The fifteen minute time period shall include such time as is reasonably necessary for the Committee to review any documentary, photographic, or other evidence presented by a party. 29. • If the complainant contacts the Bureau of Community Corrections orally, the complainant shall be advised that the complaint must be in writing and sent to the Bureau of Community Corrections. • The complaint must include the complainant’s mailing address and telephone number. 31. • The Committee’s report shall contain a brief summary of the evidence and statements presented by the parties, and the conclusions drawn by the Committee. • The report shall also contain a statement of recommended disposition, and a brief statement of reasons supporting the recommendation. -- 4 of 5 -- 32. • It is to be emphasized that these are recommendations, subject to de novo review by the Chief Judge who shall make a final determination as to disposition of any complaint brought. 34. • The Committee report shall be final when it has been circulated to the Committee members and each Committee member’s approval has been noted on the report. 35. • Once the Committee’s report is approved by the Committee members, the report shall be final and there shall be no opportunity to re-hearing, amendment, modification by the Committee or further proceedings before the Committee with respect to the claim. • All further action concerning the claim shall be taken before the Chief Judge.
Each applicant shall complete under oath a copy of the application form provided by the Escambia County Bureau of Community Corrections, hereinafter Bureau of Community Corrections, and submit the application together with an application fee of $300.00 to the Bureau of Community Corrections. 2.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 0c6f0b52c232bcd90df0bbce725ded16190b855b0655584532afcc271b75ec49 (72677 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.