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21 verbatim mandatory provisions from Therapy Dog Program.
Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. Check the order's own effective and rescission dates before relying on it. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
• If the Office of the State Attorney, the Office of the Public Defender, the Florida Department of Children and Families, the Guardian ad Litem, or privately retained counsel determine pursuant to section 92.55, Florida Statutes, that the presence and use of a therapy animal or facility dog may aid in the testimony of a child, victim, or witness at a hearing, trial or deposition, that agency or individual shall file a written motion in the official court file in the case requesting court approval for the use of a therapy animal or facility dog with a copy of the motion and notice of the hearing on the motion to all interested parties, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator in Court Administration and the Sheriff’s Office1. • The moving party shall be solely responsible for informing all interested parties in any changes in date and/or time of the scheduled hearing on the motion, including notice to the Sheriff’s Office. • Prior to the hearing on the motion, the moving party shall contact an approved therapy animal or facility dog provider to determine the availability of a therapy team and use of one of their therapy animals or facility dogs.2 3. • All appearances must be scheduled and coordinated with the ADA Coordinator in Court Administration so that the team will be granted access into the courthouse by court security. • The third party and therapy animal/facility dog handler shall use best efforts to minimize contact between the animal therapy/facility dog team and the public and other courthouse employees. • At no time shall the dog/animal be permitted to be alone with any child/victim/witness without the presence of the third party/representative of the moving party. 6. • Ensure that handles will inquire if there are any known allergies or concerns prior to entering an elevator. l. • All therapy animals/facility dogs must be trained not to eliminate indoors. • Outdoor elimination shall be cleaned up by the handler using proper disposal methods to control odors, etc. n. • Ensure that every therapy animal/facility dog handler shall carry with and produce their certifying organization identification card and an identification card bearing their association or employment with the approved provider and shall produce same upon request by any court official. • Additionally, all therapy animals or facility dogs shall be clearly identified by a dog therapy vest, neckerchief, or other identifying garment. t. • All approved therapy animal/facility dog providers and their contact information shall be listed on the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit website at http://flcourts18.org. • Any organization seeking approval to be added as an approved provider must submit the following information to Court Administration for the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit: a. • The Chief Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit shall determine, in his/her sole discretion, whether an organization is an approved provider for the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. • I understand that any interaction between me and the therapy animal/facility dog must not be distracting to other individuals or court proceedings. • I understand that my therapy animal/facility dog must be leashed/caged at all times and that I must be in control of the animal/dog and the leash/cage. • I understand that I must refrain from all overt displays of emotion and making eye contact with the witness and/or victim during all court proceedings/testimony. • I will inquire if there are any known allergies or concerns prior to entering an elevator. • I will arrive with sufficient time prior to any scheduled court proceeding to exercise my therapy animal or facility dog to avoid any elimination issues and my therapy animal/facility dog is trained not to eliminate indoors. • I will carry and produce my certifying organization identification card and an identification card bearing the association or employment with the approved provider and shall produce the same upon request by any court official including but not limited to courthouse security and Sheriff’s Office deputies. • I understand that my therapy animal or facility dog must wear a dog therapy vest, neckerchief, or other identifying garment at all times while in the courthouse facilities. _____________________________ Handler’s Signature _____________________________ Date _____________________________ Handler’s Address _____________________________ City, State, Zip Code _____________________________ Handler’s Driver’s License No./State ID Card No.
If the Office of the State Attorney, the Office of the Public Defender, the Florida Department of Children and Families, the Guardian ad Litem, or privately retained counsel determine pursuant to section 92.55, Florida Statutes, that the presence and use of a therapy animal or facility dog may aid in the testimony of a child, victim, or witness at a hearing, trial or deposition, that agency or individual shall file a written motion in the official court file in the case requesting court approval for the use of a therapy animal or facility dog with a copy of the motion and notice of the hearing on the motion to all interested parties, including the Americans with Disabilities Act -- 1 of 9 -- 2 (ADA) Coordinator in Court Administration and the Sheriff’s Office1.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 378c50a260e0aaf1eaaffc3c497dd85d135f723795f43e76630e1b22e84f38f6 (193399 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]
4 verbatim requirements on hearings.
2 verbatim requirements on hearing time in LAUREN N. PEFFER's division.