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35 verbatim mandatory provisions from 10-30-s.
Eighteenth 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 Dependency Circuit Court shall promote and, where deemed appropriate, order parties to mediation on Chapter 39 Dependency matters, including any and all issues related to Dependency and Termination of Parental Rights proceeding for parties appearing on matters pending before Dependency Court. 2. • Mediation sessions shall be scheduled and conducted in accordance with F. • Mediation shall ideally take place as early as possible, commensurate with the determination of representation by counsel. • Once the mediation is ordered, a mediation master calendar shall be maintained wherein mediation dates and times will be coordinated for the use of Courtroom 3, with the cooperation of all the parties. • If mediation cannot be set in Court, all parties will contact the Court within 24 hours of the order of mediation. • Mediation shall be conducted in Courtroom 3 on Fridays, or at other dates and times as may be available, in accordance with the following time schedule: a. 08:30am - 10:00 am b. 10: 00am - 11:30 am c. 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm d. 3:00pm - 4:30 pm 6. • Polk Correctional Facility shall submit to the Court a Motion and Order for Transportation of that party no later than five (5) days before the scheduled mediation date. 7. • A list of contract certified Dependency Mediators shall be maintained by the Court at the Juvenile Justice Center, 190 Bush Boulevard, Sanford Florida 32773 Telephone Number (407) 665-5344, Fax (407) 665-5449 and the Mediation Coordinator, 301 North Park Avenue, Suite N301, Sanford, FL 32771, telephone number (407) 665-4244. 8. • The parties must have a pending Chapter 39 Dependency or Termination of Parental Rights case to be eligible to participate in the mediation program. • If one or more of the parties are indigent, the Seminole County Dependency Circuit Judge shall appoint a Florida Supreme Court Certified Dependency Mediator. 9. • Any person who seeks to schedule a final hearing for either pre-adjudication or post adjudication Florida Statutes Chapter 39 Dependency and Termination of -- 3 of 7 -- 4 Parental Rights matters must first participate in a mediation conference through the Seminole County Dependency Mediation Program herein established, unless waived pursuant to this order. b. • Each person shall have previously filed a financial affidavit with the Court, and there shall have been a determination of civil indigency status and, if so found, appointment of counsel. c. • In order to determine child support, the parent(s) shall bring to the initial mediation conference a current short form financial affidavit, and if the earnings have changed prior to filing; a copy of the most current pay stub voucher or letter from an employer stating current earnings. • Pursuant to Florida Statutes § 44.102 (2) (c), 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. 11. • 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 Dependency 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. • 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. 13. • 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 party appearing by telephone must be received by the specified date on the Order. 15. • If the parties cannot agree to a continuance, then the party 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 the Court must receive a signed stipulation by each party 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. • P. 8.290 the parties appearing for mediation must have full and complete authority to negotiate a Mediated Settlement Agreement, and to bind their respective agency, department or program. • If an agreement of all the issues is reached, the Mediation Agreement will be drafted by the Mediator while all parties are present at the session, and shall note the full or partial settlement of the issues. • The parties and their attorneys shall sign the Agreement, and receive draft copies pending review and action by the Court. • The parties may then proceed on the uncontested hearing calendar to request that the Court review it, and, if deemed appropriate, in consideration of the best interests of the child or children, approve and ratify the Mediated Agreement, unless the Court deems other changes are required, or determines that it is not acceptable. • The final approved Mediation Agreement shall be distributed to the parties, filed with the Court and made a part of the Court file, and any scheduled Adjudicatory Hearing before the Court may be cancelled. • 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. • If there is no Agreement, the Mediator shall report to the Court that an impasse has been reached. • 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, including caucus sessions, shall be confidential and inadmissible as evidence if any subsequent legal proceeding, unless both parties agree otherwise, or as otherwise provided in Florida Statutes and Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure. • If an agreement is reached regarding said support, the signed agreement with the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet shall be filed with the Court. 19. • The Court 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 Dependency Mediation. • The outcome shall be reported to the Court, who shall cause the entry of the information in the Uniform Reporting Data Index for transmittal to the appropriate governmental agency in Tallahassee without identification of the Parties. 20. • Any funding made available through grants, Federal, State or County funding or by other means shall be administered under the auspices of the Court Administrator, through the Mediation Coordinator. 21. • This Administrative Order shall become effective for cases as described herein which are mediated on or after the date of this order.
The Dependency Circuit Court shall promote and, where deemed appropriate, order parties to mediation on Chapter 39 Dependency matters, including any and all issues related to Dependency and Termination of Parental Rights proceeding for parties appearing on matters pending before Dependency Court. 2.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 8c52d8e348b0477b9b8d07d7e0bdf772676ac4ce055b301597a56421dc02aae7 (180318 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.