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35 verbatim mandatory provisions from 26-18-b.
Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. Check the order's own effective and rescission dates before relying on it. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
• One of the judges serving in the Circuit Court shall be appointed as Administrative Judge by the Chief Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. • The judge of each Felony Criminal division shall be responsible for the progress and conduct of all cases assigned to that division from inception to conclusion including, but not limited to, pretrial, trial, and post-trial motions, and shall exercise supervision over the preparation of all calendars and dockets of cases assigned to the division. • Daily initial appearances at the Brevard County Jail shall continue to be handled by the county court judges of Brevard County. • Felony arraignments and second appearances shall be handled by the assigned criminal division judge, or as scheduled on an Early Resolution docket. • The Clerk of the Court shall establish an Alphabet System for the assignment of felony cases. • Case assignments shall be made based on the first letter of the defendant’s last name. • The Alphabet System shall provide for the shifting of cases from one division to another to provide a balanced caseload. • Upon the filing of an initial charging document with the Clerk’s Office (including those charging capital offenses unless the initial charging document is an indictment), the judge assignment shall be made by the following alphabet. • Cases shall be divided equally among the six sitting felony judges (or their successors) at the Moore Justice Center, and they shall be defined as H, N, O, S, T, and X. • Substantive new cases shall be allocated alphabetically by the defendant’s last name as follows: • Subsequent charging documents which identify additional defendants who are charged with offenses arising from the same incident shall receive the same judge division assigned as the defendant having the lowest case number. • Subsequent cases charging unrelated offenses against the co-defendant shall be assigned by the Clerk as specified in paragraph III(B). • Any case arising from the direct filing of a juvenile case shall be assigned as specified in paragraph III(B). • Violation of probation (VOP) and violation of community control (VOCC) cases shall be assigned as specified in paragraph III(B). • When an indictment is filed that includes a charge of first-degree murder, the case shall be assigned/reassigned in succession to those criminal division judges who are certified by the Supreme Court of Florida to handle capital cases, or their successors shall assume their position in the rotation. • The judge shall be skipped in subsequent rotation assignments equal to the number of co- defendants charged in the indictment. • If the Chief Judge wishes to be part of the rotation, he/she will advise the Clerk, and the rotation succession shall be so adjusted. • If a Notice of Intent to Not Seek the Death Penalty is filed by the State Attorney’s Office at the time of the indictment or after, then the case shall be assigned according to the capital case rotation. 3. • Any judge assuming a criminal division shall take the required course on handling capital cases before assuming the criminal division, if possible, but in any event shall take the course at the earliest opportunity. • Each criminal division judge shall comply with all refresher education requirements. • Until the time that the judge assuming a criminal division takes the required course, any capital cases assigned to that division shall be reassigned to a different division by the Chief Judge. • In capital cases in which the death sentence has been imposed, the case shall stay assigned to the original sentencing judge who imposed the death sentence, whether or not that judge is still presiding in the criminal division. • If the sentencing judge is recused, disqualified, retired, or otherwise no longer serving as a circuit judge, the Chief Judge shall reassign the case to a judge qualified to conduct capital proceedings. • If the death sentence has not been imposed and the case is still pending and unresolved, then the capital case shall not remain assigned to the judge when the judge rotates off the criminal bench. • Rather, the case shall remain in the felony criminal division to which it was assigned. 3. • For post-conviction motions in all cases in which the defendant was not sentenced to death, the case shall be assigned pursuant to paragraph III(B). • In a felony case, when a defendant is found incompetent due to mental illness, intellectual disability, or autism, civilly committed as a sexual predator, or found not guilty by reason of insanity, the case shall remain with the assigned judge as set forth above in paragraph III(B). • The Clerk shall promptly report any difficulties in maintaining a balanced caseload to the Chief Judge. • The Clerk of the Court shall also establish a system for the assignment of county misdemeanor criminal cases, county criminal traffic, civil traffic infractions, county non-criminal infractions, and municipal and county ordinance violations. • Case assignments shall be made based on an alphabet assignment by the first letter of the defendant’s last name. • Upon the filing of an initial charging document with the Clerk’s Office, the judge division assignment shall be made by alphabet assignment. C. • Cases shall be divided equally among the five sitting county criminal judges (or their successors) at the Moore Justice Center, and they shall be defined as 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8. • Substantive new cases shall be assigned alphabetically by the defendant’s last name as follows: • The Administrative Judge of both the Circuit Court and County Divisions, in addition to those duties specifically assigned herein, shall be responsible for the general supervision of that department and shall perform those administrative duties necessary to its efficient and effective operation in conformity with the applicable policies, procedures, and rules governing the administration of that department as contemplated by Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.215(b)(5). • This Administrative Order shall take effect April 1, 2026, and remain in effect until modified or rescinded.
One of the judges serving in the Circuit Court shall be appointed as Administrative Judge by the Chief Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 91b4fb72454748857e9e6513eaec0caf897244da23946211f84d5f291dce4d8d (156426 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. | Scope corrected 2026-08-03: the 18th numbers county-specific orders with -b (Brevard) and -s (Seminole); unsuffixed orders are circuit-wide. This rule was bulk-tagged to one county at harvest; the court's own numbering convention now controls. 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]
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.