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20 verbatim requirements from 20251510141549_Administrative-Procedures-for-Judge-Henry-10-9-25.
Fourteenth Judicial Circuit (Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Washington). Procedural information only; not legal advice.
• DO NOT call the judge’s office to request hearing time. • The judicial assistant will provide up to five (5) dates and times for a hearing. IN THE EVENT COUNSEL CANNOT AGREE on a mutually convenient date and time for the hearing from the dates and times provided, the Court may unilaterally set the matter for hearing or alternatively enter an order on the matter without hearing. If the Court unilaterally sets the matter for hearing, the hearing cannot be canceled without a Court order. If the parties resolve the issue prior to the Court-scheduled hearing, they shall submit an agreed upon proposed order more than one (1) business day prior to hearing date to avoid the requirement for appearance at the Court-scheduled hearing. Accordingly, to the extent possible, counsel should seek another attorney from their office to cover a hearing to avoid either having no choice in the date and time of a hearing or waiving a hearing on the matter. • Only email the judicial assistant to request dates and confirm the hearing date. DO NOT include the judicial assistant in email chains between counsel and/or staff to clear dates (or anything else). • DO NOT file a notice of hearing before receiving a confirmation email from the judicial assistant confirming that the hearing has been set. • Additional motions cannot be piggybacked on a previously scheduled hearing time without being cleared with the judicial assistant and opposing counsel, and such motions may only potentially be added if sufficient time has been reserved. To add a motion to a previously scheduled hearing, obtain opposing counsel’s consent to the addition, then email the judicial assistant about adding the motion to the hearing and advise if additional time is required. The judicial assistant will confirm the addition of the motion to the hearing time. If additional time is required but not available, the request to piggyback a motion will be denied and the motion will need to be reset at a different date and time. Do not prepare and file a notice of the added motion until receipt of the judicial assistant’s confirmation. • The parties may stipulate to having a motion decided without the necessity of a hearing. If such is the case, the movant shall include at least a brief memorandum of law as part of the 4 Revision Date 10/9/25 motion being filed or as a supplemental filing on the motion. Thereafter, the nonmovant shall file a response which shall include at least a brief memorandum of law as part of the response. Upon filing of the response, the movant’s counsel shall contact the judicial assistant and advise that a non-hearing motion and response have been filed and provide copies of the filed motion and response. The Court shall consider the motion and response and issue a ruling. 5 Revision Date 10/9/25 Civil – Hearing Time Motion Calendar Docket • Accordingly, DO NOT try to set a matter on the motion calendar that cannot be concluded within 15 minutes as it will delay the conclusion of the hearing on the motion and annoy the other attorneys set for hearing on the motion calendar. If there is an abuse of the motion calendar docket by a particular attorney or law firm, it may result in the attorney/law firm not being able to set matters on the motion calendar in the future. • Judge Henry will control admission of counsel from the Zoom waiting room. Therefore, remain on Zoom until admitted for the hearing on your case/motion, and do not disconnect if not admitted right at the start time of the docket. 6 Revision Date 10/9/25 Civil – Good Faith Certification for Motions • For most motions (other than truly dispositive motions), the moving party is required to include a certification in the motion that movant made a “good faith attempt” to resolve the issue(s) raised in the motion with the opposing counsel or party (whether represented or pro se) prior to filing the motion. This Court’s requirement of conferral is broader than that included in Rule 1.202, Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. • A “good faith attempt” is not satisfied by the movant sending one or two emails to the opposing counsel or party if pro se and claiming no response was received. Movant may initiate the “good faith attempt” via email. However, if no response is received, the movant shall call the opposing counsel’s office or party at least twice if no response is received to an email or initial phone call before certifying that the movant has made a “good faith attempt” to resolve the issue(s) raised in the motion. • The only circumstances where a “good faith attempt” certification is not required is for dispositive motions (motions to dismiss with prejudice, motions for judgment on the pleadings, motions for summary judgment, etc.), emergency motions where the movant is not able to attempt contact because of the circumstances (however, delaying filing a motion that could be filed earlier is not considered an emergency just because the deadline is approaching), and post-trial or post-judgment motions (such as motions for rehearing or reconsideration). For motions to dismiss that raise primarily technical issues which, under applicable law would likely result in the pleading party being given leave to amend, the movant shall make a “good faith attempt” to resolve the issue(s) before filing the motion (e.g., where a party omits a copy of a contract or document from the complaint in an action for breach of contract). 7 Revision Date 10/9/25 Civil – Setting Trials • Once the trial date is confirmed, Judge Henry will enter an order setting trial and pretrial dates, including discovery, disclosure and mediation deadlines. If the parties need to adjust any of the deadlines contained in the order setting trial, such can be submitted by stipulated order and will be permitted if they do not appear to affect preparation for trial. 8 Revision Date 10/9/25 Civil – Jury Trial Dockets The future jury trial dockets set as of the date of this update to the administrative procedures are the following: November 3-7, 2025 December 1-5, 2025 January 5-16, 2026 March 2-13, 2026 May 4-15, 2026 June 1-5, 2026 August 3-7, 2026 September 8-18, 2026 November 2-6, 2026 December 7-11, 2026 5-day docket 5-day docket 10-day docket 10-day docket 10-day docket 5-day docket 5-day docket 9-day docket 5-day docket 5-day docket 9 Revision Date 10/9/25 Civil – Zoom Instructions • All counsel and parties attending a hearing shall do so using video, unless video is impossible. • So that hearings can promptly start, please log into the Zoom video conference at least five (5) minutes before the hearing start time. The judge will admit you to the hearing from the waiting room. DO NOT disconnect from Zoom just because you may not be admitted right at the hearing time. • All proposed orders must be submitted via the e-filing portal. • Only the cover letter and proposed order should be submitted via the e-filing portal. Copies of motions, responses, exhibits, case law or other items should not be included with the cover letter or uploaded in the e-filing portal (see Submission of Hearing Materials, infra). The only exception to exclusion of other items pertains to the Pretrial Stipulated Order, in which case counsel shall either attach to the order or upload as a judicial exhibit the witness and exhibit lists to attach to the pretrial stip. • All proposed orders must be submitted in Word format. Counsel and parties preparing orders are directed to remove any hidden formatting or codes. Failure to remove hidden formatting may result in the order being rejected. • All proposed orders must be in DJCMA format (see #6 & 7 below), but counsel/parties are directed to omit the service portion for the judicial assistant to sign and certify service of the order (the M and A portions of the DJCMA format). • Proposed orders do not need to include the addresses or email addresses of recipients of the order at the end. A copy of the signed order will be served on all counsel/parties registered for service via the e-portal. • If the case involves a pro se party who is not registered to receive filings from the e-portal, the proposed order shall include as the last paragraph (before
DO NOT call the judge’s office to request hearing time.
Reviewer note: PDF sha256: 17b532869cf99d5931e6af6ad021d7df4f59fa2123011a5fa3c8a7ba054ddef1. Read from the ORDERED section as numbered paragraphs. 7 paragraph(s) withheld as too scan-damaged to quote. Verbatim from the operative section of https://jud14.flcourts.org/uploaded/20251510141549_Administrative-Procedures-for-Judge-Henry-10-9-25.pdf, harvested 2026-08-02; whitespace normalised only. [moved from the text 2026-09-14]
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.