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13 verbatim mandatory provisions from Order of Referral to Family Court Mediation.
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. • THE COURT on its own volition finds that reducing conflict through a process that promotes an amicable agreement on the issues is in the best interest of the parties, therefore both parties are required to attend mediation to resolve the contested issues. • PURSUANT TO Florida Statutes 44.108 (2) (a) fees for family mediation when the parties’ combined income is greater than $50,000 but less than $100,000 per year, shall be one hundred and twenty dollars ($120.00) per person; and pursuant to Florida Statutes 44.108 (2) (b) fees for family mediation when parties’ combined income is less than $50,000 shall be sixty dollars ($60.00) per person. • No mediation fees shall be assessed if the party is found to be indigent. • PURSUANT TO Florida Statutes 44.102 (2) © Upon the filing of a motion or request of a party, the Court shall not refer any case to mediation if it finds there has been a history of domestic violence that would compromise the mediation process. • Within ten (10) days of the date of this order, both parties shall complete and file a notarized Family Law Financial Affidavit with the Family Law Division of the Clerk of Courts. 3. • Any party who believes he/she cannot pay the required mediation fees must file an Application for Determination of Civil Indigent Status, along with the completed Financial Affidavit. 4. • Upon receipt of the Application and Financial Affidavits of the parties, the Clerk of Court shall review the information and determine if the applicant is indigent, according to the Florida Statute. 5. • If a party is not determined to be indigent by the Clerk of Court, he/she must pay the mediation fees indicated in paragraph III above within ten (10) days of the date of this order. • Upon payment of the required fees, the parties must contact a mediator from the attached list of certified mediators, and schedule the mediation session. • All mediation shall be completed within seventy-five (75) days of the date of this order and prior to requesting a final hearing, unless extended by order of the Court, for good cause shown. 7. • Each party to this case shall attend the mediation session and participate earnestly to resolve all disputed family law issues. • Should the parties come to an agreement on all of the issues related to the case, they must file a notarized Marital Settlement Agreement signed by both parties stipulating to all issues related to their case including, but not limited to, a parenting plan, a time-sharing schedule, child support, alimony, medical and life insurance, and property and debt distribution. -- 2 of 3 -- The Marital Settlement Agreement must be filed with the Clerk of Court, Family Law Division, 190 Governmental Center, Pensacola, Florida, 32502. • If mediation has already been scheduled, the parties must immediately notify the mediator that they have filed a Marital Settlement Agreement and need to cancel the mediation session.
THE COURT on its own volition finds that reducing conflict through a process that promotes an amicable agreement on the issues is in the best interest of the parties, therefore both parties are required to attend mediation to resolve the contested issues.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 159c13ad1db0d76178fab98942a77c5302276156e2952fdca1d46c44ec9efd29 (73827 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.
Judge Shull requires ALL motions set for special-set hearing to go to mediation before the hearing is held.
Judge Burkhart will not schedule a temporary-relief hearing until mediation has been held ON the temporary relief sought — mediation first, hearing second.
Judge Sharrit refers ALL cases to mediation (exceptions only by leave) and openly encourages Special Magistrates under Rule 1.490(b) to beat the hearing-time bottleneck.