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43 verbatim mandatory provisions from 07-33-s.
Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. Check the order's own effective and rescission dates before relying on it. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
• MEDIATION - FAMILY MEDIATION MANDATORY REFERRAL OF ALL CONTESTED FAMILY LAW CASES TO MEDIATION _____________________________________________________________________________ WHEREAS, certain domestic disputes that include matters of shared parental responsibility, child residency, paternity, child support and costs, distribution of property, payment of alimony, child visitation and modifications thereof, can be amicably and expeditiously resolved through mediation prior to hearing by the Court; and WHEREAS, mediation is a process whereby a neutral third person acts to encourage the resolution of disputes through a non-adversarial process and assists the parties in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement; and WHEREAS, the mediation process can result in cost efficiencies to the parties and WHEREAS, mandatory mediation for certain matters increases the availability of judicial resources, and WHEREAS, it is necessary for the prompt and efficient administration of justice of this Court; • SEMINOLE COUNTY MEDIATION PROGRAM shall serve as an adjunct to the Domestic Relations Division of the Circuit Court for the purpose of mediating issues on matters of shared and sole parental responsibility, child residency, child support, payment of alimony, paternity, child visitation, distribution of property and any other domestic disputes including motions and pleas for temporary relief appearing on the court docket. • A list of contract certified Family Mediators shall be maintained by the Family Mediation Unit of Seminole County Mediation Program, located at 301 North Park Avenue, Suite N301, Sanford, FL 32771, Phone number(407) 665-4244. 3. • The parties must have a pending court case and/or have filed a case here in Seminole County to be eligible to participate in the mediation program. • If the parties have a combined income under $100,000, Seminole County Mediation Program shall appoint a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Contract Mediator. • Any person who seeks to schedule a final hearing for either pre-judgment family law case on a modification of a post dissolution decree or a post judgment domestic decree between unmarried parents on matters of shared or sole parental responsibility, child residency, child support, payment of alimony, child visitation, distribution of property or a hearing on a temporary matter before a judge or on any other domestic dispute shall first participate in a mediation conference through Seminole County Mediation Program herein established. • Each person shall have previously filed a financial affidavit and bring to the initial mediation conference a current financial affidavit, if the earnings have changed prior to filing; as well as the most current pay stub voucher or letter from an employer stating current earnings. • If self-employed, the person must bring a copy of the most recent 1040 filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 6. • Pursuant to Section 44.102 (2) (c), Florida Statutes upon motion or request of a person, the Court shall not refer any case to mediation it if finds there has been a significant history of domestic violence that would compromise the mediation process. 7. • Any person may apply to the Court by written motion for good cause, to waive the mandatory mediation required by this Order prior to filing a notice for trial. • If mediation has already been scheduled, and the mediation is canceled by the Court, both parties shall notify the Seminole County Mediation Program, in writing, with copy of Order signed by the Judge within five (5) business days prior to the scheduled mediation to cancel the mediation. • If the parties do provide appropriate notice, five (5) business days, of cancellation, there shall be no fee. • If both parties do not give proper notification of the judicial waiver or cancellation, each person shall be required to pay a full session fee for the canceled mediation session which shall be paid to the Clerk of the Court. 8. • After obtaining service of process and prior to scheduling a hearing for temporary matters before a judge, if the parties have not agreed on a private mediator, the parties shall fill out a Information For Scheduling Mediation prior to Setting A Trial (attached hereto) and submit this form by fax or mail to the Seminole County Mediation Program, 301 North Park Avenue, Suite N301, Sanford, FL 32771; phone number(407) 665-4244, and fax number (407) 665-4129; to schedule and attend a mediation session with a Supreme Court Certified Mediator unless otherwise waived by the Court. • At any time after service and prior to filing a notice of trial, a person may submit a completed Information For Scheduling Mediation Prior To Setting Trial to request the scheduling of a mediation session to the Seminole County Mediation Program, 301 North Park Avenue, Suite N301, Sanford, FL 32771; telephone numbers (407) 665-4244, (407) 665-4115, and fax number (407) 665-4129). • Seminole County Mediation Program will attempt to schedule with both parties, after receiving the Information for Scheduling Mediation Prior to Setting Trial. • Mediation sessions shall be scheduled and conducted in accordance with Florida Family Rules of Procedure 12.740 through 12.741, unless otherwise ordered. • If an agreement is not reached through mediation, the mediator shall report the lack of agreement to the Court and Seminole County Mediation Program. • The person shall then proceed to trial upon a time certain and date given by the Court. • If the mediation session of a pre-judgment, post-judgment or temporary matter is coordinated by Seminole County Mediation Program, the initial mediation session shall not exceed 2 ½ hours unless agreed to by the parties and the mediator. • If a case is scheduled with a contract mediator, payment shall be made by the due date specified in the Order of Referral. • If one person fails to pay their mediation session fee as ordered in the Order of Referral, but the other person pays according to the Order of Referral, the mediation session could be cancelled and mediation fees shall apply depending on the circumstances of the case. • These additional fees shall not be credited to any future session fees. If both parties fail to pay the mediation session fees as ordered in the Order of Referral, Seminole County Mediation Department may cancel the mediation up to and including the day of the mediation session. • If the mediator proceeds with the mediation session, the Court may impose sanctions against both parties which may include the original session fee plus an additional session fee per person based upon the parties’ combined income which will not be credited toward any session fee. 10. • If the parties and Seminole County Mediation Department cannot agree to a continuance, them the person who is requesting the continuance or cancellation shall apply to the Court for a continuance or cancellation. • The process for continuation or cancellation must be completed and Seminole County Mediation Department must receive a signed stipulation by each person and Seminole County Mediation Department or a judge’s order allowing the continuance or cancellation at least five (5) business days prior to the scheduled mediation session to avoid a full payment of one session fee. • When proper notice of a continuance or cancellation has been provided with a minimum of five (5) business days (pursuant to Paragraph 11 above), no fee shall be charged for the first reset or cancellation. • If less that five (5) business days notice (order of the court or stipulation of the parties) is received or the parties are requesting a second continuation, the person requesting the continuance or cancellation shall be responsible for one session fee ($40 or $80) depending upon the parties’ combined income. • These fees are due in addition to any other session fees and shall be paid to the Clerk of the Court in Seminole County at one of the following locations: • If an attorney is notified or called to a trial before a court which conflicts with a scheduled mediation session, the attorney must immediately call the other person and Seminole County Mediation Department and fax or hand deliver a notice of the case number and judge of the conflicting case for verification in order to rescheduled the mediation session. • If this notice is not received by 3:30 p.m. the business day preceding the mediation session, the entire session fee will be due and will not be applied to the next mediation session. • The fee paid by the non cancelling party applied to the rescheduled mediation session because of the cancellation will not be refunded if no future mediation session occurs. 15. • In these cases, telephonic appearance is allowed by stipulation of both parties in writing to the Court prior to the mediation session, or by motion and order by the Court. • All mediation session fees from the person appearing by telephone must be received by the specified date on the Order. 16. • Seminole County Mediation Department shall keep a record of the case name, number, assigning judge, mediator, the attorney and the outcome of the mediation session in all cases referred to the Seminole County Mediation Program. 17. • If an agreement of all the issues is reached, the mediation report form shall note the full settlement and the parties may then proceed on the uncontested hearing calendar to request that the final judgment be entered and the agreement (previously approved by the Court by Consent Order) is a part thereof. • Any scheduled hearing before the General Magistrate shall be cancelled when the General Magistrate receives notice of the full agreement and any pro se case shall be scheduled by the Family Coordinator before the assigned judge. • If a partial agreement is reached, the mediation report form shall note that the case has remaining issues and said form shall be filed with the Court. • An Order Approving Modification Agreement incorporating the agreement shall be prepared at the mediation session or by a person’s attorney. 2. • The Order of Approval of a Modification Agreement and the executed agreement shall be forwarded to the judge for consideration. 18. • Pursuant to the Mediation Confidentiality and Privilege Act, with the exception of the parties’ signed financial affidavits and any other documents which are required to be filed in the public record, all communications, verbal or written, between the parties and from the parties made during the mediation session, shall be confidential and inadmissible as evidence if any subsequent legal proceeding, unless both parties agree otherwise. • If an agreement is reached regarding said support, the signed agreement with the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet shall be filed with the Court. 19. • This Administrative Order shall become effective for cases as described herein which are mediated on or after the date of this order.
MEDIATION - FAMILY MEDIATION MANDATORY REFERRAL OF ALL CONTESTED FAMILY LAW CASES TO MEDIATION _____________________________________________________________________________ WHEREAS, certain domestic disputes that include matters of shared parental responsibility, child residency, paternity, child support and costs, distribution of property, payment of alimony, child visitation and modifications thereof, can be amicably and expeditiously resolved through mediation prior to hearing by the Court; and WHEREAS, mediation is a process whereby a neutral third person acts to encourage the resolution of disputes through a non-adversarial process and assists the parties in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement; and WHEREAS, the mediation process can result in cost efficiencies to the parties and WHEREAS, mandatory mediation for certain matters increases the availability of judicial resources, a
Reviewer note: Document sha256: e2fccbee3c4c7722e0e04849418eda281b7cf6309edf60212c39fd5857de740e (113087 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. Text layer cleaned 2026-09-08 (Phase 3a): page markers removed; wording untouched. 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. [moved from the text 2026-09-14]
1 verbatim mandatory provision from 13-16-s.
2 verbatim mandatory provisions from 15-41-s.
35 verbatim mandatory provisions from 10-30-s.