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33 verbatim lines from the circuit's civil case-management materials.
Seventeenth Judicial Circuit (Broward County), civil divisions. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
• (g) In accordance with the authority vested in the Chief Judge by Article V, section 2(d) of the Florida Constitution, section 43.26, Florida Statutes, Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.215, and pursuant to Florida Supreme Court Administrative Orders: AOSC23-0837 (March 21, 2024), AOSC- 0962 (December 5, 2024) and AOSC24-0662 (December 5, 2024), it is hereby ORDERED: (1) All Seventeenth Judicial Circuit and Broward County Judges are to strictly comply with the requirements of Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.545(a), (b), and (e), and SC2023-0837 (March 21, 2024) which respectively require judges to conclude litigation as soon as it is reasonably and justly possible to do so, to take charge of all cases at an early stage and to actively control the progress of the cases thereafter until they are determined, and to apply a firm continuance policy allowing continuances only for good cause shown. • (2) All attorneys practicing in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit must strictly comply with Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.545(a), which requires attorneys to conclude litigation as soon as it is reasonably and justly possible to do so. (3) Consistent with the dictates above and in compliance with SC2023- 0962 (December 5, 2024) and, there is established in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit a Civil Case Management Plan as set forth herein, applicable to all civil cases, 3 which will be administered for the implementation of enhanced case management procedures and guidelines for the timely and efficient processing o f civil cases. • Administration, amended); 2.250 (Time Standards for Trial and Appellate Courts and Reporting Requirements amended); Rule 2.546 (Active and Inactive Case Status, new); 2.550 (Calendar Conflicts, amended); and Form 2.604 (Notice of Pending Matter); Form 2.604 (Notice of Inactive Status) and Form 2.606 (Notice of Active Status), amended or added. 3 For purposes of this Administrative Order the term “civil case” means actions to which the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure apply, as identified in Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.010, and actions in which the court has ordered that the action proceed under one or more of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure pursuant to Florida Small Claims Rule 7.020(c) if the deadline for the trial date specified in Florida Small Claims Rule 7.090(d) no longer applies in the action, but does not include actions subject to section 51.011, Florida Statutes, post-judgment proceedings, writs to which Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.630 applies, and those excluded by Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.200. • Case Track Assignment: (1) Not later than 120 days after an action commences as provided in Rule 1.050, the court must assign each civil case to one of three case management tracks: streamlined, general, or complex based upon information listed on the Civil Cover Sheet and according to the case classifications attached hereto, as Exhibit “A”. • After the initial designation as complex, streamlined, or general, a track assignment may be changed by the court on its own motion or a change can be requested by a party upon a motion promptly filed after the appearance of good cause to support the motion. • A n y cas e initi ally designated as streamlined or general must comply with Administrative Order 2025-22-Civ, as such may be amended from time to time, before being designated complex and assigned to a complex litigation division. • Nothing herein prohibits a judge presiding over a general civil division from declaring an action complex and directing that the action remain in his or her general civil division for disposition. a. Complex Case Track . • The complex case track involves those actions with extraordinary complexity as to require or benefit from early intervention and individual judicial management, and are those cases that have been or may be designated by court order as complex under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.201, or which may be direct filed to a complex litigation division or declared complex and assigned to a complex litigation division pursuant to Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Administrative Order 2025-22-Civ. • Streamlined cases are those cases that reflect mutual knowledge of the underlying facts and normally requiring little judicial intervention and which have relatively simple procedural and legal issues that can be resolved promptly by early referral to mediation, Alternative Dispute Resolution or expedited hearing. • Notwithstanding the case classifications attached hereto, to determine whether a case is streamlined, the presiding judge shall consider whether the case involves: i. Few parties; ii. Non-complex issues related to liability and damages; iii. Few anticipated dispositive pretrial motions; iv. Limited need for discovery; v. Few witnesses; vi. Minimal documentary evidence; vii. An anticipated trial length of less than three (3) days; and viii. • Any other factor relevant to proper case management. c. General Cases . • These cases represent the large majority of standard civil cases that do not meet criteria of streamlined or complex. • (2) Time Standards & Goals . • The time standards set forth herein are directives established by Florida Supreme Court Administrative Order AOSC2023-0837 (March 21, 2024) and Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.250, and are intended to be presumptively reasonable time periods for disposition of civil cases in trial courts except where periods where a case is on inactive status which are excluded from the time periods set forth herein. • D ead lines are strictly enforced in accordance with Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.200. • H o wever, up on a showing of extraordinary circumstances, certain unique cases may have cause for reasonable delay beyond these periods. • Most cases should, however, be completed within the following time periods and the presiding judge shall take appropriate action to manage new and existing cases to bring such matters to disposition within such times4: a. Complex cases: di sposed within 30 months b. General cases: di sposed within 18 months c. Streamlined cases: di sposed within 12 months d. Small Claims: 95 d ay s from commencement of action, as 4 Time begins from the date of service of initial process on the last defendant or 120 days after commencement of the action as provided in Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.050, whichever occurs first. • (3) Assignment to Case Tracks – General and Streamlined Cases a. A case classification is determined upon filing the initial complaint in accordance with the classifications set forth in Exhibits “A” for Circuit Civil Cases and “M” for County Court Cases. b. Disagreement as to case classification. • If the parties do not agree to the classification of the case as general or streamlined, the presiding judge shall determine the appropriate designation upon motion. • The moving party shall bear the burden of demonstrating the propriety of the case classification, unless all parties agree to a designation. • (4) Assignment to Case Track – Complex a. Circuit Court i. For assignment of a case to a complex litigation division (business or tort) the parties must comply with Administrative Order 2025- 22-Civ. ii. • Establishing Procedures for Direct Filing or Reassignment o f Circuit Civil Cases to a Complex Business or Complex Tort Division, as such may be amended from time to time. • This does not preclude a civil case from being designated complex by the presiding judge of a general civil division and such case remaining in a general civil division. b. County Court i. Motion by Parties. • Any party to a County Court civil action may file a written motion with a courtesy copy provided to the assigned division judge requesting the case be designated as complex. • Upon receipt, the motion should be referred to the Chief Judge or Administrative Judge for the County Court for ultimate determination. ii. • If the division judge, after receipt of all the pleadings believes there is a colorable basis for designating the matter complex, the case shall be referred to the Chief Judge or Administrative Judge for the County Court for ultimate determination. • In those extremely rare cases in which the Court issues an order designating a county court civil case as complex, the parties shall be required to comply with the procedures for complex cases as set forth in Administrative Order 2025-22-Civ, as such may be amended from time to time, and Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.201. • (5) Case Management Procedures a. Complex Cases: Case Management Order must be issued as provided by Rule 1.201, Florida Rule General Practice and Judicial Administration. • The Case Management Order outlining required time periods for Complex Cases is attached as Exhibits “D” and “F” for Business and Tort, respectively, and the Uniform Trial Order, attached as Exhibits “E” and “G”, Business and Tort cases, respectively. b. Streamlined and General Cases: No later than 120 days after commencement of an action as provided in Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.050, or 30 days after service of complaint of the last defendant, whichever is first, the court must issue a Case Management Order specifying projected or actual trial period setting deadlines consistent with time standards specified in Fla. R. Civ. P. 2.250(a)(1)(B) for completion of civil case. • The Case Management Order for Streamlined Cases is attached as Exhibit “H” and the Uniform Trial Order is attached as Exhibit “I”, which must specify no less than the following deadlines: i. service of complaint; ii. service of extension; iii. adding new parties; iv. completion of fact discovery; v. completion of expert discovery; vi. resolution of all objections to pleadings; vii. resolution of Pre Trial motions; and viii. completion of Alternative Dispute Resolution. • This Administrative Order vacates and supersedes Administrative Order 2024- 26-Civ (Amendments 1 and 2) and all prior inconsistent Administrative Orders. • The Exhibits to this Administrative Order may be amended from time to time without the necessity of amending the Administrative Order. • DONE AND ORDERED in Chambers, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, this 24th day of July, 2025.
(g) In accordance with the authority vested in the Chief Judge by Article V, section 2(d) of the Florida Constitution, section 43.26, Florida Statutes, Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.215, and pursuant to Florida Supreme Court Administrative Orders: AOSC23-0837 (March 21, 2024), AOSC- 0962 (December 5, 2024) and AOSC24-0662 (December 5, 2024), it is hereby ORDERED: (
Source sha256: 57b9603938b47305592d7c09230abbf439804db8ea45621f7a0b59b99e2efaab. GOOGLE DOCS VEIN: 102 of the Seventeenth Circuit's 106 division procedure documents are published as Google Docs (docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-...), not as PDFs on the court's own host. Two consecutive fetches of the same Google Doc URL return DIFFERENT bytes — Google injects per-request session config — so the document_sha256 recorded here pins one render, not a stable identity, and content-hash change detection does not work on this vein. Re-verified live 2026-07-24 by text presence instead: six sampled documents still carried 100%, 100%, 100%, 91%, 100% and 100% of their published requirements. Text layer cleaned 2026-09-08 (Phase 3g): 23 kerning-split words rejoined; wording untouched. Verbatim, captured 2026-07-24; whitespace normalised only. [moved from the text 2026-09-14] [Rebuilt 2026-09-27: the published text had been cut at line and page breaks (106 fragments, many beginning or ending mid-sentence); it now publishes the 33 whole sentences those fragments belong to, verbatim from the rule's own source (live re-fetch, bytes equal), with printed page markers and running headers removed.]
6 verbatim requirements on case management in STEVEN P. DELUCA's division.
4 verbatim requirements on case management in LAUREN N. PEFFER's division.