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9 verbatim requirements extracted from media-16634__Magistrate-Hill-Procedures_updated-3.21.26.pdf, across 1 topic.
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 • All post-final judgment cases must be referred to the Magistrate using the “Order of Referral to General Magistrate” (ORGM) template, which can be found on Judge Griffin’s website. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COUNSEL TO PROVIDE THE ORDER OF REFERRAL TO MAGISTRATE TO THE MAGISTRATE IMMEDIATELY UPON NEW PLEADING(S) BEING FILED WITH THE CLERK. All notices of hearing must include a certification of good faith that attempts have been made to resolve the matter with opposing counsel/party. • E-Mail: All emails must include all parties, the style of the case, and the case number. Failure to do so will result in delays in responses and scheduling . Communication with this office is via email to ircmagistrate@circuit19.org. You must include the opposing counsel or party (if pro se) as a cc recipient on all email correspondence. Emails sent to this office must the following in the subject line: • Case short style name – example: Smith v Smith. • Case number – short case number is sufficient – example: 18DR623. • Purpose of email: Examples: Notice of Hearing, Request for Hearing , Hearing Packet for [date], etc. • The body of the email must contain: ➢ brief description of the purpose of the email; ➢ if requesting hearing time, a good faith estimate of the time you need for the hearing and equal time for the opposing party (after consulting with opposing); ➢ certification of good faith that attempts have been made to resolve the matter with opposing counsel/party. • Documents submitted to this office by email should be attached as a document with a file name that is easily identifiable and searchable – not “scanned doc” or “012X34E56f78,” etc., and the file name must contain a short case style & short case number for reference. Example: Smith v Smith 18DR623 Notice of Hearing. • Multiple Emails, Same Subject Matter : DO NOT submit multiple emails regarding the same subject matter unless you have not received a response within 72 (business) hours. A response to your email will be forthcoming at the earliest possible opportunity. Status of Your Case: Do not email the Magistrate for an update on when an order will be filed. All orders are completed as quickly as possible. Emailing for an update will not do anything to speed up the process. Ex Parte Communication: All communication with the court shall take place when all parties are present or, if in writing/email, copied to opposing counsel/party, or filed with the Clerk of Court. No party or attorney shall otherwise communicate directly with the court. Telephone: Telephone is not an accepted method of communicating with this office. Pro Se Parties: A party who does not have an attorney is a “pro se” party. If both parties are pro se, they will be referred to the Pro Se Case Manager. If you are pro se and wish to inquire about your case status or schedule a hearing, you may complete Form A or B (as applicable) at www.circuit19.org, under Family Court Information and Resources. If you have a working email address that you wish to use for e-service, please fill out an e-mail the email designation form and file it with the Clerk of Court. You will be served with copies via your eservice address. COURT ATTENDANCE: ZOOM VIDEO: You may appear via Zoom or in person (see Zoom Information Procedures) without prior court permission for case management conferences, non-evidentiary hearings, case management hearings, and all other hearings scheduled for 30 minutes or less . You must appear by video to testify at a hearing. • IN PERSON: Attendance at all trials and evidentiary hearings will be in person unless otherwise directed by the court or agreed to by the parties in writing. Requests for remote appearances must be in accordance with Rule 2.530. SCHEDULING HEARINGS: • All hearing must be coordinated with opposing counsel/party. • All supplemental petitions: the parties must attend mediation before setting an evidentiary hearing. If you schedule an evidentiary hearing without first having been to mediation, your hearing will be stricken. • To schedule a hearing, contact the magistrate’s assistant by email at ircmagistrate@circuit19.org to obtain hearing time. • Additional motions may not be “piggy -backed” for the same hearing without the express permission of the original noticing party or court permission. • The moving party must provide (in one email) to ircmagistrate@circuit19.org and to the opposing party/attorney via their designated email address(es) a copy of the HEARING PACKET in accordance with the “SCHEDULE FOR PROVIDING” provided herein, which must include at a minimum: ➢ the motions(s) scheduled to be heard; ➢ the notice(s) of hearing; ➢ exhibits (see “Exhibit Policy”); • ➢ a proposed order IN WORD FORMAT including relevant attachments such as child support guidelines, parenting plan, etc.; ➢ relevant case law. All notices of hearing must contain a good faith certification stating that you have contacted the opposing party/counsel for opposing party and coordinated the hearing date, time, and amount of time necessary for the hearing. If two attempts to coordinate have been made and the opposing party/attorney has not responded, you may unilaterally schedule the hearing for one of the dates provided, setting forth in your good faith certificate the attempts that were made to coordinate the hearing date and time. If, after making three attempts with several different potential court dates each time, a hearing cannot be coordinated due to the “unavailability” of the other party/attorney, you may contact the magistrate’s assistant who will schedule time to assist you in scheduling via conference call with both attorneys’ offices. If the court finds that a particular party/attorney is frequently or unreasonably “not available” the court will arbitrarily schedule their hearings. DO NOT include the Magistrate’s Assistant in back-and-forth disputes. CANCELING HEARINGS : Notices of cancellation must be e-filed as soon as possible after the determination is made to cancel. Please email copy of the notice of cancellation as soon as possible to ircmagistrate@circuit19.org, but no later than 2:00 PM the business day before the hearing. EMERGENCY MOTIONS: See Judge Griffin’s procedures. MOTIONS TO WITHDRAW-Rule 2.505 (f) (1) Fla. R. Jud. Admin. : The motion must contain all of the following: the client’s current address, phone number with area code, and e-mail address. If a consent by the client has been filed and referenced in the motion to withdraw and trial is not imminent, a hearing is not required. You may submit a copy of the motion and consent with a proposed order in WORD format. Please be sure that you follow the court’s posted procedures for submitting proposed orders. • REMOTE APPEARANCE - ZOOM The court’s ZOOM AND COURTROOM BEHAVIOR RULES can be found at: Magistrate Kathryn Hill | 19th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. You must rename yourself on Zoom to show your actual name further identifying yourself. Example: Interpreter, Attorney, etc. STIPULATIONS: Do not submit “Agreed Orders” OR “Stipulated Orders” to the Magistrate. If you have a stipulation, send an e-filed copy along with a separate proposed order in WORD format. Title the order as follows: “Order on Stipulated Motion for xxx” PROPOSED ORDERS: A proposed recommended order must include the date of the hearing, the date(s) of the referral to the magistrate for the matter(s) heard, and detailed findings of fact. A (separate) proposed order adopting must contain a complete service list including e -service addresses or postal addresses if • there is no e-service address. Signed orders will be e-filed and e-served via the e-portal. If a pro se party does not have an e-service address on file, it will be your responsibility to promptly provide a copy of the signed order to the opposing party. Exhibits with proposed orders must be provided with the proposed order, and they must be properly marked as referenced in the proposed order. The document file name must indicate that it is an exhibit to the proposed order. (Examples: Exhibit A - Child Support Guidelines Worksheet, Exhibit B - Parenting Plan) PLEADINGS: Do not submit original pleadings to this office . All original pleadings must be filed with the Clerk of Court. Online filing is available through the Florida Courts E -Filing Portal (www.myflcourtaccess.com). NOTICES FOR TRIAL: Email Notices for Trial to ircmagistrate@circuit19.org after e-filing. You must immediately schedule a case management conference hearing unless one has already taken place. The notice for trial shall include a good faith estimate of the time required for trial (coordinated with opposing party/counsel) and set forth the relevant pleadings that are to be disposed of. *Please note that the magistrate’s office may not immediately be aware of pleadings filed with the clerk. FAMILY MEDIATION PROGRAM Parties having a combined GROSS income of up to $100,000.00 qualify for the 19th Judicial Circuit Mediation Program. Both parties must file Financial Affidavits in order to qualify. Please see the Mediation Tab on the 19th Judicial Circuit website for more information. When submitting an Order of Referral to Family Mediation, your email must state the combined income for the parties and that both parties have current financial affidavits of record. Please use the form Order of Referral to Family Mediation. Family Mediation e-service address: adr@circuit19.org. • TRIAL PROCEDURES The Court will not review or consider any exhibit before it is admitted in evidence. (See Magistrate Hill’s Exhibit Policy.) ALL HEARINGS: All exhibits must be provided to both the opposing party/attorney and the Magistrate’s Assistant - AFTER THEY ARE MARKED - via email in accordance with the PRE-TRIAL ORDER OR “SCHEDULE FOR PROVIDING” (BELOW), whichever is earlier. If the hearing is in person : In addition to the instructions above, you must bring three (3) sets of hard copies of all exhibits, including electronic media with you to court. DO NOT submit evidence to the Clerk of Court, Domestic Relations/Family Division, prior to the hearing/trial. If the hearing is via Zoom: You must provide via mail or personal delivery all pre -marked exhibits including electronic media to the Clerk of Court, Domestic Relations/Family Division (address below) at least 24 hours before the trial. Indian River County Clerk of Court, Family Division Attn: Evidence/Exhibit Clerk Clerk of Court, Domestic Relations/Family Division 2000 16th Avenue Vero Beach, FL 32960 • SCHEDULE FOR PROVIDING PROPOSED ORDERS/FINAL JUDGMENTS: The following are the deadlines to provide proposed final judgments/orders to the court. Please note, there are no variations or exceptions for holidays or anything else. If the deadline falls on a holiday, you may provide the proposed final judgment any day before the holiday but not after the holiday. TRIAL (unless otherwise stated in the Order Setting Trial) : NO LATER THAN 10 DAYS PRIOR TO TRIAL. If the 10th day is on a weekend, the deadline is the first business day BEFORE the deadline. Example: If the trial is schedule to begin on Tuesday the 17th, the deadline is Friday the 6th. HEARINGS: NO LATER THAN 5 DAYS PRIOR TO T HE HEARING. If the 5th day is on a weekend, the deadline is the first business day BEFORE the deadline. CASE DISPOSITIONS: If a party voluntarily dismisses their case and nothing else is pending, or if there is a full settlement, counsel must immediately notify the court at ircmagistrate@circuit19.org. The case will not be removed from the court’s trial calendar until the settlement has been filed and an order has been provided to the Magistrate. COURT REPORTER: All proceedings in front of the magistrate are recorded. You may have a court reporter at your own cost. SANCTIONS: Failure to appear for a scheduled hearing will be grounds for sanctions being imposed , including attorney’s fees, costs, striking of pleadings, default, and/or dismissal. INTERPRETER: If needed, interpreter services must be provided by the party needing such services. An attorney for the parties cannot act as an interpreter. ADMINISTERING OF OATHS : See Florida Supreme Court Administrative Order No. AOSC20 -23 (5th Amendment): Notaries and other persons qualified to administer an oath in the State of Florida may swear a witness remotely by audio -video communication technology from a location within the State of Florida, provided they can positively identify the witness . If a witness is not located within the State of Florida, a witness may consent to being put under oath via audio-video communication technology by a person qualified to administer an oath in the State of Florida. For purposes of the provisions regarding the administering of oaths, the term “positively identify” means that the notary or other qualified person can both see and hear the witness via audio -video communications equipment for purposes of readily identifying the witness.
All post-final judgment cases must be referred to the Magistrate using the “Order of Referral to General Magistrate” (ORGM) template, which can be found on Judge Griffin’s website. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COUNSEL TO PROVIDE THE ORDER OF REFERRAL TO MAGISTRATE TO THE MAGISTRATE IMMEDIATELY UPON NEW PLEADING(S) BEING FILED WITH THE CLERK. All notices of hearing must include a certification of good faith that attempts have been made to resolve the matter with opposing counsel/party.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: 1ab4ce007466f414a653619ca1e278430178e5eb74b2eed3684fb8415c72bb42. 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. — media-16634__Magistrate-Hill-Procedures_updated-3.21.26.pdf: published requirements". Only the display title changed — the requirement text, source URL and hash are untouched. Text layer cleaned 2026-09-08 (Phase 3g): 2 kerning-split words rejoined; wording untouched. 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.