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42 verbatim requirements extracted from judge-katherine-mish__Judicial-Practices-and-Procedures-Approved.7.22.26.pdf, across 7 topics.
Nineteenth Judicial Circuit (Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, St. Lucie). Check the order's own effective and rescission dates before relying on it. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
HEARING TIME & ARGUMENT LIMITS • Table of Contents A. Communications with the Judicial Office ................................................................................ 1 B. Scheduling Procedures ............................................................................................................. 2 C. Remote Appearance ................................................................................................................. 4 D. Submission of Orders and Judgments ...................................................................................... 4 E. Courtesy Copies of Case Law and Other Documents ............................................................... 5 F. Emergency and Other Urgent Matters ..................................................................................... 5 G. Exhibits for Evidentiary Hearing Proceedings .......................................................................... 6 H. Pretrial Procedures, Conferences, and Motion Practice ........................................................... 6 I. Setting Case for Trial (Civil and Domestic Relations) ............................................................ 6 J. Forms ....................................................................................................................................... 7 K. Other Division Procedures ........................................................................................................7 L. Probate ......................................................................................................................................7 M. Information Not Covered ......................................................................................................... 8 • Method of Communication: All communications to the judicial office must be submitted by e-mail to SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. The subject line must contain the case number, case name, and relevant matter (e.g., 2024 DR 001234– Doe v. Doe - 2-Hour Hearing Requested.) • If you want to make a request for some judicial action, you must file a motion with the Clerk of Court and send a copy to all attorneys and all unrepresented parties in the case. Pursuant to the local rules, the judicial assistant may direct you to send a copy of the motion to her. If the hearing is 1 hour or less, you will need to coordinate a hearing date using our online scheduling calendar. • All motions must be filed with the Clerk before you set the motion for hearing using the online scheduling system or contact this office for hearing time. • Failure to include this certification will result in the motion and/or hearing being stricken from the docket. • Good Faith Certificate: All motions and notices of hearing must contain a certificate of good faith that you have contacted the opposing party (and attempted to resolve the matter without court time) and coordinated the hearing date, time, and amount of time necessary for the hearing. It must include a certification that the movant (attorney versus staff if the movant is represented) has personally and directly conferred or attempted to confer with the attorney or opposing party. • Attempts to Confer: One attorney’s staff member emailing/calling another attorney’s staff member regarding availability on dates and times does not constitute a good faith certification that attempts have been made to resolve the matter. An attorney must directly contact another attorney (or pro se party) and allow at least 48 hours during the business week for a response. Further, sending a letter in the mail (whether to opposing counsel or a pro se party) will never meet the requirement of good faith certification. Hearing time will not be allocated unless the good faith certification requirements are strictly followed. • Scheduling Hearings: Attorneys may schedule hearings (1 hour or under) using the online scheduling program. Parties will be restricted to the time they allotted for the hearing. The calendar will indicate available hearing times. The website is https://slccjis.stlucieco.gov/attorney_calendar. Users must register to obtain a user id and password on the site. Copies of motions and notice of hearings must be sent to the Judicial Assistant. The Court reserves the discretion to reject any scheduling. Attorneys who repeatedly abuse the online scheduling may be denied further privileges of self-scheduling. Non-evidentiary motions may be denied without hearing, e.g., motions to dismiss. Please review Judge Mish’s procedures posted on here as well. • Longer hearings must be set with the Judicial Assistant after sending a copy of the Motion to the Judicial Assistant. Attorneys should consult the Judge’s on-line calendar and confer with opposing counsel on mutually convenient dates before emailing the Judicial Assistant. • Hearing time will be strictly enforced by the Court. Any motion that is not concluded by the expiration of the requested hearing time will be suspended and must be rescheduled. Accordingly, all counsel are advised to be succinct, organized, and to the point in the presentation of, or objection to, any motion. • Coordinating Hearings and Unilaterally setting Hearings: The moving party is responsible for contacting the opposing party to coordinate the hearing date. If after three (3) business days you are unable to coordinate the hearing date, you may unilaterally schedule the hearing setting forth in your good faith certificate the specific attempts that were made to coordinate the hearing. Failure to include this certification will result in the • hearing being stricken from the docket. • Notice of Hearing: Once a hearing date is scheduled, the moving party shall file a notice the hearing within 2 business days. Notices of hearings MUST contain a good faith certificate (see Good Faith Certificate below) and MUST contain the other party’s email address or mail ing address if the party is pro se. Statements of service to “all parties of record” do not constitute proper notice, which may cause the hearing to be cancelled. Notices of hearing MUST contain the ADA notification required by Fla. R. G en. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.540. Additionally, motions may not be “piggy- backed” by cross -notice unless counsel first confirms with the party who scheduled the hearing and the judicial assistant that sufficient additional time can be reserved to hear them. • Submission Deadlines: The court must receive a copy of the motion, notice of hearing, (and a proposed order if UMC hearing) within 2 business days of scheduling the hearing by email at SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. All proposed orders must be submitted in WORD format. Failure to timely provide a copy of the notice, motion, (and proposed order if UMC hearing), to the Court will result in the matter being stricken from the docket. If your case is stricken from a docket, it will not be rescheduled on that same date. • Continuance Procedure: A request for continuance must be submitted at least five days prior to the scheduled court date. Except for good cause shown, the motion must be signed by the party requesting the continuance, as required by Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.545(e). Click or tap here to enter text. • Cancelling Hearings: If you cancel your hearing, you must file a Notice of Cancellation and advise the Judicial Assistant by email no later than noon, the day before the hearing, with a copy to all parties, so that it may be removed from the Court’s docket. • Shelter Petitions/Hearings: Shelter hearings are normally conducted on Mondays through Fridays at 9:00 a.m., unless otherwise indicated/notified. If a change in the shelter hearing time/courtroom is necessary, you will be notified by e-mail. All shelter petitions are to be e- mailed directly to Judge Mish with a copy to her Judicial Assistant, no later than 8:00 a.m. or as soon as possible thereafter, when shelter hearings are typically conducted at 9:00 a.m. • Probate Only-Requirements for Court Reporters: All evidentiary matters (both trials and hearings) must be reported by a court reporter. Counsel for the Movant is responsible for having a court reporter present. If the Movant and/or their counsel for the Movant does not plan on asking to have the proceedings reported, then he/she MUST timely notify the opposing party so that they may obtain a reporter, should they wish to do so. Failure to do so may be grounds for cancellation of the trial and may be grounds for sanctions. • HEARINGS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN PERSON, unless otherwise permitted by the Court prior to the hearing. A Non-Evidentiary hearing may be noticed as a virtual or in person hearing. The Notice of Hearing MUST indicate the type of appearance (i.e. In Person or Remote). • Testifying Participants: All testifying participants MUST appear by Zoom VIDEO. Each party is responsible for having their witnesses in the Zoom Virtual Waiting Room at the scheduled time, where they will remain until admitted by the Court to give testimony. Witnesses who do not appear on camera; will not be permitted to testify. At the time of the hearing, all participants must be in a quiet place, without interruption from children, pets or other noises or distractions. • Deadline for Submissions: If counsel is asked to prepare an order, the order shall be drafted and circulated to opposing counsel or pro se party within two ( 2) business days of the hearing and must be submitted to the Court in Word format and to all counsel and pro se parties within seven (7) days of the hearing, unless otherwise ordered at the hearing. • Requirements: If a party believes there is a factual basis for setting an emergency hearing, a detailed motion setting forth the following must be filed: (1) the issues to be resolved, (2) reasons why an emergency hearing is necessary, and (3) the amount of time needed for each party’s presentation. The filing party must submit the motion to the Court by email at slcjudge10@circuit19.org. If you are requesting an Emergency Hearing, you must indicate in the subject line “Request for Emergency Hearing.” • Scheduling: I f the court determines that an emergency exists, a hearing will be scheduled unilaterally by the court. All parties shall make themselves available for the emergency hearing, barring exigent circumstances. G. Exhibits for Evidentiary Hearing Proceedings • Submission: Parties are to file an exhibit list with the Clerk prior to hearing . This must be done at least three (3) business days (72 hours) prior to the day of special set hearing. A completed exhibit list and all exhibits must be delivered or scanned and emailed to all • Parties. Parties should bring a minimum of four (4) copies of all exhibits with them to court (original to Clerk, copy for each party, copy for the witness, and copy for the Court). H. Pretrial Procedures, Conferences, and Motion Practice • Case Management Conference/Status Conference: Any party may request or schedule a case management conference (CMC) or Status Hearing when a case requires. The court strongly encourages the early use of CMC in more complex cases, multiple-party litigation, or any case that might benefit from court intervention. CMCs are mandatory for attorneys and self-represented litigants in civil cases, unless excused by the court in advance. Parties represented by counsel are not required to appear at a CMC. Any request for a CMC or status conference must articulate the reasons for the necessity of the conference. • Status Conference: Any party may request a status conference when a case requires. • Requirements: Any request for a CMC or status conference must articulate the reasons for the necessity of the conference. • Scheduling: If the court agrees that a CMC or status conference is required, the moving party may schedule the CMC or status conference through the online scheduling platform. • Interpreter Requests: If an interpreter is needed for a hearing or trial where a fundamental interest is at stake, please visit https://www.circuit19.org/court - interpreters/ for more information. • Submissions: All Probate questions and submissions shall be directed to the case manager at ProbateSLC@Circuit19.org, with the exception of hearing documents, those shall be submitted to the Court by email to SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. • Hearings: Probate Hearings can be scheduled online for up to 1 hour. If you require more than 1 hour of time, you must first schedule a Status Hearing. • Emergency Motions/Urgent Motions: These matters shall be set for a 10 minute status • If any procedures are not covered herein, counsel is free to contact the Court, in writing via e-mail at SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. A status hearing can be set at which time the Court will attempt to answer any inquiries. The Court appreciates counsels’ efforts to understand and comply with this Court’s procedures. PROPOSED ORDERS • Submission Procedures (Non-Probate Orders Only): This is a paperless office. Documents shall be submitted to this office by email should be attached as a document with a name that is easily identifiable and searchable. As an example: Jones v. Jones, 21CA234 O -Set Hrg. Motions must be submitted in PDF format All proposed orders must be submitted in WORD format. Please submit all documents attached to one (1) email to the Judicial Assistant at SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. Please refer to Probate procedures for submission of probate documents. • D. Submission of Orders and Judgments (Non-Probate Orders Only) • Format: All proposed orders must be submitted in Word Format. All proposed orders must be accompanied by correspondence either (1) certifying that all parties agree to the order or (2) containing a statement identifying any disagreement of the parties as to the proposed order. All proposed orders and motions MUST contain proper address certification—i.e. the FULL address or email address where the motion was served (or order will be served.) “I certify that a copy of the foregoing was emailed to all parties through the e -service portal” is NOT sufficient. Likewise, listing a party on the order “cc:” without listing the address is insufficient. • Submission Method: All proposed order shall be submitted by email to SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. • Agreed Orders: If you have reached an agreement/stipulation, a separate agreed order in WORD must be provided to the Court with language approving the agreement/stipulation. If you have exhibits to include in the agreed order, you must also submit the agreed order in .pdf format and include all necessary attachments. The Court will not execute proposed orders, agreed orders, or stipulations without a written verification or cover letter stating the action requested, that a copy was provided to all counsel of record and pro se parties, and if there is a stipulation or an agreed order, that there are no objections to the entry of the order. Do not state in a cover letter words to • the effect: “No objection was received” OR "By copy of this cover letter to opposing counsel, opposing counsel is requested to advise the Court if there is an objection to the proposed order." Instead, advise the Court if there is an objection to the proposed order. • Attorneys must verify completion and correctness of the Checklists by personal signature. No signature stamps are allowed. Once the checklist is complete, the attorney’s office shall submit via email only to ProbateSLC@circuit19.org: • Completed checklist • Proposed Order(s) in Word format; and • A description of the documents being provided, as well as the action you wish to be taken. • PLEASE NOTE: Probate Orders can take up to 2 week to process. CASE MANAGEMENT • I. Setting Case for Trial • Procedure for Setting Trial: If a probate matter needs to be set for trial, a notice for trial shall be e- filed and a copy shall be submitted to the Court by email at SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. The matter will be scheduled for a case management conference once the Notice of Trial is received by the Court. All Civil trials are scheduled by the Case Management Plan and Trial Order. • Notice Period: The case management order shall be your trial order. • Other Procedures for Setting Case for Trial: Pre-Trial Compliance: The Court requires full compliance with the Case Management Plan and Order, which includes, without limitation, timely submission of a joint pre -trial statement. Your case will be subject to sanctions and/or removal from the trial docket if a joint pre -trial statement is not filed in compliance with the pre-trial order. Motions in limine and other motions concerning how the trial is to be conducted will not be entertained during trial or on the day of jury selection, unless the Court is satisfied that with due diligence, the matter could not have been heard pre-trial. • Trials: If a probate matter needs to be set for trial, a notice for trial shall be e -filed and a copy shall be submitted to the Court by email at SLCJudge10@Circuit19.org. The matter will be scheduled for a case management conference once the Notice of Trial is received by the Court. EXHIBITS & EVIDENCE • Remote Appearance Procedure: The court maintains a hybrid virtual courtroom, allowing parties to appear either in person or remotely, as provided by Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.530. However, ALL EVIDENTIARY REMOTE & VIRTUAL APPEARANCES • Platform Used: The court uses Zoom for remote appearances. PAGE & WORD LIMITS • When Required: Any legal memoranda or briefs for special set hearings, along with copies of significant cited authorities (highlighting the pertinent sections is appreciated by the Court), should be provided to the Court and opposing counsel at least three (3) business days prior the hearing. A list of any witnesses to be called and any responsive memoranda should be provided to the Court and to opposing counsel at least three (3) business days prior to the hearing. The Court will attempt to review the motion and memorandum, and read the cases cited therein, prior to the hearing so that an immediate ruling may be rendered. BREVITY IS APPRECIATED AND ENCOURAGED, and memorandums should be kept to no more than five (5) pages in length. Case law and Memorandums provided to the Court during the hearing may not be considered. The Court, on occasion, may rule on motions without a hearing. Therefore, both counsel filing the motion and opposing parties are encouraged to timely file written argument with the Court. COURTESY COPIES • Deadline for Submissions: Courtesy copies must be emailed to the court no later than ten days prior to any evidentiary proceeding.
Table of Contents A. Communications with the Judicial Office ................................................................................ 1 B. Scheduling Procedures ............................................................................................................. 2 C. Remote Appearance ................................................................................................................. 4 D. Submission of Orders and Judgments ...................................................................................... 4 E. Courtesy Copies of Case Law and Other Documents ............................................................... 5 F. Emergency and Other Urgent Matters ..................................................................................... 5 G. Exhibits for Evidentiary Hearing Proceedings ................................................................
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 2b9c841969c55596546f127e24f082986e995e2e057b829491dff0897defde97. One rule per order rather than per topic, so an order's requirements stay together. Published during the completeness pass. | Title normalised 2026-07-26 for readability; the court's own asset name was "19th Cir. — judge-katherine-mish__Judicial-Practices-and-Procedures-Approved.7.22.26.pdf: published requirements". Only the display title changed — the requirement text, source URL and hash are untouched. Text layer cleaned 2026-09-08 (Phase 3f): page headers/footers, ligatures and letter-spaced headings normalised; wording untouched. Text layer cleaned 2026-09-08 (Phase 3g): 5 kerning-split words rejoined; wording untouched. Slug completed 2026-09-09 (fix program 2026-09-09, Phase 5, audit M7): was fl19-ao-judge-katherine-mish-judicial-practices-and-procedures-approved-7-22-26- (truncated with a trailing hyphen). Verbatim from the order, captured 2026-07-24; whitespace normalised only. No OCR was used anywhere in this chain. [moved from the text 2026-09-14]
4 verbatim requirements on hearings.
2 verbatim requirements on hearing time in LAUREN N. PEFFER's division.