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33 verbatim mandatory provisions from Biography: Souto, Melissa D..
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. • Communications to the judicial office must be submitted by e-mail to Nicole.daniels@flcourts18.org. • All communications with the judicial office must comply with Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits a judge from initiating, permitting, or considering ex parte communications and from considering other communications outside the presence of the parties concerning a pending or impending proceeding, unless authorized by law. • All parties must be copied on any e-mail directed to the judicial office, unless an ex parte communication is authorized by law. -- 1 of 7 -- 2 • Unsolicited Communications: • Unsolicited communications from non- parties will not be considered by the Court. • All attorneys and self-represented litigants must provide an e-mail address to receive signed orders electronically, unless excused. • All parties are required to give a good-faith assessment of the time needed for a hearing. • A Notice of Hearing must specifically state the matter(s) to be heard, the date, time, and place of the hearing, and shall be e-filed with the Clerk. • Any party scheduling a hearing shall provide notice to all other parties. • Submission Deadlines (Hearing Materials): • Should you wish for the judge to review materials or case law prior to a hearing, please submit at least ten (10) days prior to your hearing • Continuance Procedure: • Motions for continuance must strictly comply with Rule 2.085(e) or be made orally on the record in open court. • If unable to obtain the State’s position, the motion must -- 2 of 7 -- 3 indicate such. • Such motions and proposed Orders must be filed at least two (2) business days prior to the scheduled court date. • Cancelling Hearings: • You must e-file a Motion to Appear telephonically, as well as a proposed order. • The proposed Order must state the date and time of the hearing, the first and last name of the party appearing by phone, and a telephone number for the Court to call at the time of the hearing. • If multiple parties wish to appear by phone, the proposed Order must provide ONE telephone number (conference line) for the Court to call at the time of the hearing. • If a party appearing by telephone will be giving testimony, they must have a notary public present with them at the time of the hearing so that he/she may be sworn in. • All proposed orders must be submitted in Word format along with a separately filed cover letter stating that opposing parties have reviewed the proposed Order and they have no objection to the form or content of the Order or containing a statement identifying any disagreement of the parties as to the proposed order. • If the matter has not been heard by the Court, and you have not received a response from opposing parties, then it must be set for a hearing. • The Motion shall also indicate that all interested parties have been contacted, and their position must be indicated in the motion. • Stipulated Modifications and Orders (with a stipulation signed by both parties) • Motion for Substitution of Counsel (Signed by Attorney and Party) • Motions to Withdraw (WITH SIGNED CONSENT FROM CLIENT – see below) • These types of matters may be submitted without a hearing, but depending on the nature of those matters, after review of the filings by the Court, a hearing may still be necessary. • Courtesy copies of case law that counsel plans to rely upon shall be provided to the Court in advance of the scheduled hearing. • All parties shall make themselves available for the emergency hearing, barring exigent circumstances. • All attorneys must bring sufficient copies of each exhibit for the clerk, the Court, and each party to review during the hearing or trial. • If the attorney is unable to obtain a signed consent from their client, the motion must be set for a hearing with at least 5 days' notice to the parties. • The proposed Order allowing withdrawal of counsel must reflect the following: • The client’s name, last known address, telephone number, and, if possible, e-mail address; • A statement that all pleadings are to be furnished to the client; • A statement that the client is responsible for notifying the Clerk of Court, in writing, within 5 days of any change of address. • Motion In Limine / Pre-Trial Motion: • All Motions in Limine and Pre- Trial Motions must be scheduled for hearing prior to the trial date unless the Court has indicated that they will be heard prior to trial. • Motion For Reconsideration: • If your client is in custody, and there will be a plea at arraignment, you must contact the Judicial Assistant no later than the day before at 3:30 pm to have the Defendant transported to the courtroom. • Docket Sounding: • If your client is in custody, and there will be a plea at Docket Sounding, you must contact the Judicial Assistant no later than the day before at 3:30 pm to have the Defendant transported to the courtroom. • You may also waive the Defendant’s presence at Docket Sounding, whether the Defendant is in custody or out of custody, but you must file a waiver signed by the client that waives their appearance and speedy trial, if applicable. • Trial Scheduling Conference: • Appearances at the Trial Scheduling -- 5 of 7 -- 6 Conference may NOT be waived. • Counsel shall be prepared to discuss witness availability, length of trial, any pretrial motions, and any jury instructions that will be requested that are not standard jury instructions. • Pleas: • All plea agreements must be in writing, in the form approved by the Court. • If you do not have the proper codes on the proposed orders, the order will be rejected for improper format. • You should have at least 5 lines below the JJJJ to make certain the signature block appears on that page. • Park Avenue, Sanford, FL 32771, 407-665-4227, at least 7 days before your scheduled court appearance, or immediately on receiving this notification if the time before the scheduled appearance is less than 7 days; if you are hearing or voice impaired, call 711. • Interpreter Requests:
Communications to the judicial office must be submitted by e-mail to Nicole.daniels@flcourts18.org.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: fa9e6dcec30b5f1b3277eeb85072d7317ac466269385801c6a9f71ec88e72b9f (308021 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.
A DV injunction petition is reviewed promptly; the court may issue a temporary injunction ex parte, and when it does, a full evidentiary hearing is generally set within 15 days. There is no filing fee.
Judge Lee requires a detailed emergency motion stating the issues, why an emergency hearing is necessary, and the presentation time needed — the FSC-template standard now appearing across 2026 division procedures.
Judge Thomas: an emergency motion not properly filed with the clerk will not be treated as an emergency — the clerk channel is the only emergency channel.