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62 verbatim mandatory provisions from 2008 Admin Order 08-12-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. • When these rules refer to the court, they shall be construed to apply to a judge of the court when the context requires or permits. • (1) The chief judge shall be a circuit judge who possesses administrative ability. • (2) The chief judge shall exercise administrative supervision over all courts within the judicial circuit in the exercise of judicial powers and over the judges and officers of the courts. • The chief judge shall be responsible to the chief justice of the supreme court. • (3) The chief judge shall be the chief judicial officer of the circuit, shall maintain liaison in all judicial administrative matters with the chief justice of the supreme court, and shall develop an administrative plan for the efficient and proper administration of all courts within that circuit. • The plan shall include an administrative organization capable of effecting the prompt disposition of cases; assignment of judges, other court officers, and executive assistants; control of dockets; regulation and use of courtrooms; and mandatory periodic review of the status of the inmates of the county jail. • The plan shall be compatible with the development of the capabilities of the judges in such a manner that each judge will be qualified to serve in any division, thereby creating a judicial pool from which judges may be assigned to various courts throughout the state. • The administrative plan shall include a consideration of the statistical data developed by the case reporting system. • Questions concerning the administration or management of the courts of the circuit shall be directed to the chief justice of the supreme court through the state courts administrator. • (4) The chief judge shall assign judges to the courts and divisions, and shall determine the length of each assignment. • All judges shall inform the chief judge of any contemplated absences that will affect the progress of the court’s business. • If it appears to the chief judge that the speedy, efficient, and proper administration of justice so requires, the chief judge shall request the chief justice of the supreme court to assign temporarily an additional judge or judges from outside the circuit to duty in the court requiring assistance, and shall advise the chief justice whether or not the approval of the chief judge of the circuit from which the assignment is to be made has been obtained. • The assigned judges shall be subject to administrative supervision of the chief judge for all purposes of this rule. • When assigning a judge to hear any type of postconviction or collateral relief proceeding brought by a defendant who has been sentenced to death, the chief judge shall assign to such cases a judge qualified to conduct such proceedings under subdivision (b)(10) of this rule. • Nothing in this rule shall restrict the constitutional powers of the chief justice of the supreme court to make such assignments as the chief justice shall deem appropriate. • The designee shall be responsible to the chief judge, shall have the power and duty to carry out the responsibilities assigned by the chief judge, and shall serve at the pleasure of the chief judge. • (7) The chief judge shall regulate the use of courtrooms, regularly examine the dockets of the courts under the chief judge’s administrative supervision, and require a report on the status of the actions on the dockets. • The chief judge shall monitor the status of all pending postconviction or collateral relief proceedings brought by defendants who have been sentenced to death and shall take the necessary actions to assure that such cases proceed without undue delay. • On July 1 and October 1, 1996, and on the first day of every January, April, July, and -- 2 of 8 -- Appendix A, page 3 October thereafter, the chief judge shall inform the chief justice of the supreme court of the status of all such pending cases. • (8) The chief judge or the chief judge’s designee shall regularly examine the status of every inmate of the county jail. • When so authorized, clerks of court shall be permitted to retain in such branch court facilities all county court permanent records of pending cases, and may retain and destroy these records in the manner provided by law. • (10) The chief judge shall ensure that no judge presides over a capital case in which the state is seeking the death penalty or collateral proceedings brought by a death row inmate until that judge has served a minimum of 6 months in a felony criminal division and has successfully completed the “Handling Capital Cases” course offered through the Florida College of Advanced Judicial Studies. • Each judge must complete the “Handling Capital Cases” course as soon as practicable upon entering the criminal division. • Once a judge successfully completes the “Handling Capital Cases” course, the judge must thereafter attend a “refresher” course during each of the subsequent continuing judicial education reporting periods. • This requirement shall not preclude a judge from presiding in collateral proceedings in a case in which the judge presided over the trial or an earlier collateral proceeding. • (A) The chief judge shall not assign a judge to preside over a capital case in which the state is seeking the death penalty, or collateral proceedings brought by a death row inmate, until that judge has become qualified to do so by: • A judge whose caseload includes felony criminal cases must attend the ”Handling Capital Cases” course as soon as practicable. • (C) Following attendance at the “Handling Capital Cases” course, a judge shall remain qualified to preside over a capital case for three calendar years, and may maintain that qualification by attending a “Capital Case Refresher” course during each following three-year period. • A judge who has attended the “Handling Capital Cases” course and who has not taken the “Capital Case Refresher” course within three years must requalify to preside over a capital case by attending the refresher course. • (D) The refresher course shall be at least a 6-hour course and must be approved by the Florida Court Education Council. • The course must contain instruction on the following topics: penalty phase, jury selection, and proceedings brought pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. • (E) This rule shall not preclude a judge from presiding in collateral proceedings in a case in which the judge presided over the trial or an earlier collateral proceeding. • The chief judge shall be chosen by a majority of the circuit and county court judges within the circuit for a term of 2 years commencing on July 1 of each odd-numbered year, or if there is no majority, by the chief justice, for a term of 2 years. • The election for chief judge shall be held no sooner than February 1 of the year during which the chief judge’s term commences beginning July 1. • A chief judge who is to be temporarily absent shall select an acting chief judge from among the circuit judges. • If a chief judge dies, retires, fails to appoint an acting chief judge during an absence, or is unable to perform the duties of the office, the chief justice of the supreme court shall appoint a circuit judge to act as chief judge during the absence or disability, or until a successor chief judge is elected to serve the unexpired term. • When the office of chief judge is temporarily vacant pending action within the scope of this paragraph, the duties of court administration shall be performed by the circuit judge having the longest continuous service as a judge or by another circuit judge designated by that judge. • Each circuit court administrator shall be selected or terminated by the chief judge subject to concurrence by a majority vote of the circuit and county judges of the respective circuits. • The judges shall notify the local bar within the circuit of the proposal, after which they shall permit a representative of the local bar, and may permit any other interested person, to be heard orally or in writing on the proposal before submitting it to the supreme court for approval. • When a proposed local rule is submitted to the supreme court for approval, the following procedure shall apply: • (A) Local court rule proposals shall be submitted to the supreme court in January of each year. • (B) Not later than February 15 of each year, the clerk of the supreme court shall submit all local court rule proposals to the Supreme Court Local Rules Advisory Committee created by rule 2.140. • At the same time, the clerk of the supreme court shall send copies of the proposed rules to the appropriate committees of The Florida Bar. • The Florida Bar committees, any interested local bar associations, and any other interested person shall submit any comments or responses that they wish to make to the Supreme Court Local Rules Advisory Committee on or before March 15 of the year. -- 5 of 8 -- Appendix A, page 6 (C) The Supreme Court Local Rules Advisory Committee shall meet on or before April 15 to consider the proposals and any comments submitted by interested parties. • The committee shall transmit its recommendations to the supreme court concerning each proposal, with the reasons for its recom- mendations, within 15 days after its meeting. • (D) The supreme court shall consider the recommendations of the committee and may resubmit the proposals with modifications to the committee for editorial comment only. • If a hearing is set, notice shall be given to the chief judge of the circuit from which the proposals originated, the executive director of The Florida Bar, the chair of the Rules of Judicial Administration Committee of The Florida Bar, any local bar associations, and any interested persons who made comments on the specific proposals to be considered. • The supreme court shall act on the proposals promptly after the recommendations are received or heard. • (E) If a local court rule is approved by the supreme court, it shall become effective on the date set by that court. • (F) A copy of all local court rules approved by the supreme court shall be indexed and recorded by the clerk of the circuit court in each county of the circuit where the rules are effective. • A set of the recorded copies shall be readily available for inspection as a public record, and copies shall be provided to any requesting party for the cost of duplication. • The clerk of the supreme court shall furnish copies of each approved local court rule to the executive director of The Florida Bar. • The decisions of the committee concerning the determination of the question shall be reported to the supreme court, and the court shall follow the procedure set forth in subdivision (D) above in considering the recommendation of the committee. -- 6 of 8 -- Appendix A, page 7 (3) All administrative orders of a general and continuing nature, and all others designated by the chief judge, shall be indexed and recorded by the clerk of the circuit court in each county where the orders are effective. • The chief judge shall, on an annual basis, direct a review of all local administrative orders to ensure that the set of copies maintained by the clerk remains current and does not conflict with supreme court or local rules. • (4) All local court rules entered pursuant to this section shall be numbered sequentially for each respective judicial circuit. • Each judge shall maintain a log of cases under advisement and inform the chief judge of the circuit at the end of each calendar month of each case that has been held under advisement for more than 60 days. • Particular attention shall be given to all juvenile dependency and termination of parental rights cases, and to cases involving families and children in need of services. • The failure of any judge, clerk, prosecutor, public defender, attorney, court reporter, or other officer of the court to comply with an order or directive of the chief judge shall be considered neglect of duty and shall be reported by the chief judge to the chief justice of the supreme court. • In any proceeding in which a defendant has been sentenced to death, the circuit judge assigned to the case shall take such action as may be necessary to ensure that a complete record on appeal has been properly prepared. • To that end, the judge shall convene a status conference with all counsel of record as -- 7 of 8 -- Appendix A, page 8 soon as possible after the record has been prepared pursuant to rule of appellate procedure 9.200(d) but before the record has been transmitted. • The purpose of the status conference shall be to ensure that the record is complete. • The block must contain instruction on the following topics: penalty phase, jury selection, and rule 3.850 proceedings.
When these rules refer to the court, they shall be construed to apply to a judge of the court when the context requires or permits.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 4a725bb77524722b5e918ddb474ff070dbf0f99d2c255abe21548b25b127010f (20824 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.
The 17th Circuit's circuit-wide AI disclosure/certification mandate (Jan 2026, twice amended) was VACATED in its entirety effective June 15, 2026 by Chief Judge Phillips's AO 2026-19-Gen, expressly citing the statewide framework (AOSC26-12; Rule 2.515(d)(2), SC2026-0673). Several division procedure pages still cite the vacated order.
Every circuit-civil case reviewed within 120 days of commencement and assigned a track (complex, streamlined, or general); case management orders required; firm continuance policy; sanctions for missed deadlines. Rescinds AO 21-09.
Circuit-civil hearing-availability standards: motion calendars ~2 weeks from request; 15-30 min special sets within 45-60 days; longer special sets scale.