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39 verbatim requirements from document (unlisted) [unlisted] 54fm3.
20th Judicial Circuit. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
Verbatim from https://www.ca.cjis20.org/pdf/judge/54fm3.pdf, harvested 2026-07-25; whitespace normalised only. • So, if contact with your children is not happening and you want contact with your children, you must file the proper documents to have a hearing with the judge assigned to your case. • If you want to enforce a visitation and shared parenting order you must file a motion to enforce the order and set it for hearing. • If you believe your visitation and shared parenting order needs to be changed you must file the proper documents to have a trial with the judge assigned to your case. • If you want to change an order for contact with your children and a shared parenting order, the proper document to file and serve on the other side is a “supplemental petition to modify” and the petition must state facts which demonstrate a change in circumstances since the prior order that justify a change in the prior shared parenting and contact order. • The original supplemental petition must be filed in the court file and a copy “served” on the other side. • A copy of it must be served on the other side with a summons that requires a response within 20 days. • After a response is filed, or after a default is entered if no response is filed, the petitioner must file a Notice for Trial. • If a party wants a trial date on a petition, the party must file a Notice for Trial, as required by Rule 12.440. • The parties must attend at least one mediation conference before the judge will set a trial date. • If the mediation is unsuccessful and the parties do not settle the case, the mediation department will notify the judge’s office that mediation was unsuccessful. • Continuance of trial - written stipulation required For continuances of trials, if the parties agree to a continuance, a written stipulation signed by the parties themselves, as well as their attorneys, if any, must be filed before the court can grant a continuance. • Cancelling trials that are settled If a trial is cancelled because the parties have settled the case, one of the parties must call the court's judicial assistant and notify the judge the case has settled. • Mediation required before trial and may be continued if not mediated Mediation is required in all cases before trial. • If the parties do not mediate before trial, and no order dispensing with mediation has been entered, the case will be continued and must be renoticed for trial on the next available trial docket. • Parties must contact the clerk of court to find out the judge assigned to any case. • The circumstances creating the need for the hearing and the schedules of the parties must be balanced by the parties. • Hearings are limited to the time requested A recurring problem is that litigants do not ask for enough time when scheduling a hearing or a trial. • No "piggybacking" or cross-noticing of motions Once a motion is scheduled on the court's docket, subsequent motions may not be "piggybacked" onto the time reserved for the first motion because the time reserved was only adequate for the first motion. • Motions, etc., filed within 10 days of a hearing In general, a document delivered to the clerk for filing in the court file will not make it to the court file until ten (10) days after it is filed. • Nevertheless, if a party has filed a motion, notice or other document within 10 days of the hearing time, it is a good idea to bring to the hearing a copy of the document which the party wants the court to consider. • Parties must contact the judicial assistant for each family division judge in advance of the hearing to determine how that judge will handle an appearance over the telephone. • The party requesting a telephone appearance must notify the opposing party in writing and the court's judicial assistant of the intention to appear by telephone. • How the party gets before the court on the telephone - whether called collect by the judge or whether the party must call in to the judicial assistant at a specific time - must be worked out in advance with each judicial assistant for each hearing. • Continuance of hearing; contents of motion If the parties cannot agree to reschedule a hearing, the movant can cancel the hearing time at any time but the opponent must make a motion to continue the hearing, which can be set on the regular hearing docket. • If a party opposing a hearing files a motion to continue, the motion must state good cause for granting the motion. • For continuances of trials, if the parties agree to a continuance, a written stipulation signed by the parties themselves, as well as their attorneys, if any, must be filed before the court can grant a continuance. • RV case, the party or counsel must call the DV Unit of the clerk's office, (239) 335-2884, not the judge's judicial assistant. • If a party wants the judge to rule on a particular motion, the motion must be noticed for hearing at the case management conference. • Remember: any motion or other document you put into the court file within 10 days of the hearing will not be in the court file and the judge will not see it before the hearing although a copy should be in the clerk’s computer and available to the judge through the computer. • Therefore, you must send a copy of anything filed within 10 days of the hearing to the judge's office, by fax or hand delivery, a day or so before the hearing if you want the judge to see it before the hearing. • All discovery motions to compel; required certificate For all motions to compel, unless one or both parties do not have a lawyer, the certificate above must appear in the motion or the • Certificates of service; addresses and phone numbers All motions, Notices of Hearing, petitions and other pleadings filed in the court file must contain a certificate of service as required by the • As required by the Rules, the motion or other pleading must also contain the signature, printed name, address and phone number of the party filing it. • Therefore, if a party has argument for some action he or she wants the judge to take or evidence he or she wishes to present to the judge, he or she must file and serve a motion, set it for hearing and file and serve a notice of hearing. • Title of motion & Notice of Hearing must be the same When a Notice of Hearing is prepared, the movant must provide the judicial assistant with the exact title that appears on the motion, and the same exact title of the motion should appear in the Notice of Hearing. • A notice for "all pending motions" without a listing of the motions, is no notice at all; all of the motions to be heard must be listed, by the exact title of the motion, in the Notice of Hearing. • Notice of Hearing is prepared, filed and served by the party Parties must prepare, file and serve a Notice of Hearing for any hearing time scheduled with the judicial assistant. • If a Notice of Hearing is not served on the opponent and filed with the clerk within a reasonable amount of time before the hearing, the court cannot hold the hearing and the matter must be continued. • Speaking motions; argument alone insufficient If the court is asked to consider a speaking motion, that is, a motion for which testimony or other evidence is required, counsel and the parties are reminded that if the court receives only argument or paraphrase of the evidence at the hearing, the court cannot decide the motion.
So, if contact with your children is not happening and you want contact with your children, you must file the proper documents to have a hearing with the judge assigned to your case.
Reviewer note: Order PDF sha256: 33fe45820363d9864d38075264252de62570f1dd38ba2eb36963952283a13064. Extracted from the order's own text layer.
Judge Bell caps motions and responses at 5 pages for UMC hearings and 12 pages for special-set hearings.
Judge Alijewicz requires every motion for attorney's fees and/or costs to attach a document detailing time records — no records, no fee award.
Judge Corlew bars informal contact: every communication with the Court must be in writing, filed with the Clerk, with copies furnished to all parties — and no calls to the JA to schedule or cancel UMC.