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31 verbatim requirements from the procedure documents published under "CC-E Judge James Nealis".
Fourth Judicial Circuit, Duval County. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
Verbatim from the documents linked under "CC-E Judge James Nealis" on https://www.jud4.org/ex-parte-dates-judge-s-procedures/duval-judges, harvested 2026-07-25; whitespace normalised only. • If not, please do not hesitate to email Judge Nealis’ judicial assistant, Sharon Shoup. • These requests must be made at least five (5) working days in advance of the hearing. • All motions must appear on the docket prior to requesting hearing times. • A notice of a hearing set unilaterally due to a lack of cooperation must describe, in detail, the efforts made to reach agreement on the hearing date. • Unilaterally set hearings that do not describe efforts to agree on a hearing date may be cancelled by the Court without notice. • If there is an unrepresented party involved in the case not using e-Portal, the party presenting the proposed order shall be responsible for providing a conformed copy to the unrepresented party forthwith. • If all parties before the Court are using e-Portal, the proposed Order shall be emailed to the • Proposed orders following a hearing must be submitted within five (5) days via email to sshoup@coj.net. • The email must affirmatively state whether the other parties object or do not object to the form of the order. • Any party objecting to the form of an order must notify Court immediately via email and submit a competing order within 3 days • Those who chose to represent themselves should be aware that at no time shall you unilaterally communicate with the Court or the Judicial Assistant regarding your case. • All atorneys shall be available and prepared to handle their assigned cases as called by the court. • All appearances shall be presumed to be in person. 2) Judge Nealis will announce the cases to be called during the morning docket. 3) For private counsel, conflict counsel, and RCC, cases may be called out of order to accommodate the atorneys’ needed presence in other courtrooms before other judges. • You may not request the defendant and have him/her placed in a holding cell, while you await the arrival of opposing counsel. 4) There shall be NO TALKING in the courtroom while courtroom proceedings are in progress unless a recess has been called. • Conversa�ons between or amongst atorneys and/or defendants and vic�ms must be conducted outside of the courtroom to minimize noise and maintain the required decorum. • Conversa�ons with defendants, if detained, must have occurred prior to the defendant being brought into the courtroom, unless specifically authorized otherwise by the Court. 5) All telephones are to be set on silent. • Ringing telephones shall result in your removal from the courtroom. • Requests for recording by the media shall be made in wri�ng prior to the proceeding and shall be approved prior to the beginning of the proceeding. • Defender prior to arraignment or plea. 8) Defense counsel shall not waive the presence of any in-custody defendant, who has been transported to the courthouse from the jail, without prior approval of the Court absent good cause. • Any waivers of appearance of the defendant shall be in wri�ng and filed with the clerk. • However, there shall be no waiver of defendant’s appearance at the final pretrial conference, at any cri�cal stage in the proceeding in which, if Defendant is not present, may result in more delays in their case, or a�er the Court declares the need for Defendant to be present. • Do not move or remove the microphone from the podium. 10) Side bar conferences during the docket are discouraged and shall be kept to a minimum and are at the Court’s discre�on. 11) At Arraignment, the State shall be prepared to advise the Court of the following: a. • The speedy trial date. 12) A�er arraignment the Court shall pass the case, at the Court’s discre�on. • A Final Pre-Trial (FPT) conference shall be scheduled in each case which has been scheduled for jury selec�on. 13) Once a case is set for trial, this Court shall distribute a writen Trial Order by which all par�es shall abide. 14) At the final pre-trial conference, the defendant shall be present (there shall be no waiver of • Counsel for each party shall be prepared to report the following: a. • Richardson hearing. 15) In the event of the entry of a plea by a defendant, either to a nego�ated disposi�on or straight up/open plea to the Court, the State shall be prepared to report on the following if asked to do so by the Court: a. any minimum and maximum sentences, as charged in the Informa�on; and b. the factual basis for the plea. 16) If an atorney wishes to add, remove, or pass a case to another scheduled date, that atorney shall consult with opposing counsel about same. • The moving party shall then no�fy the Court’s judicial assistant VIA EMAIL at Sshoup@coj.net (cc’ing opposing counsel) NO LATER THAN 72 • These requests must be received by the court and ruled upon prior to the scheduled court date. • Each party shall expect to be present on the date scheduled unless no�fied by the Court in wri�ng of the schedule change. • If an atorney wishes to effectuate an “in court add-on” of another case not on the docket, the atorney shall no�fy the Deputy Clerk of Court before the Judge takes the bench or prior to the case being called, so as to allow sufficient �me for the necessary paperwork to be prepared by the clerk. “In court add-ons” should not occur with frequency and shall be kept to a minimum, and shall be subject to Court approval. • All persons entering Courtroom 404 shall conduct themselves professionally. -- 3 of 3 --
If not, please do not hesitate to email Judge Nealis’ judicial assistant, Sharon Shoup.
Reviewer note: Page sha256: a8e70ab94dc6af2d448a0aced7dd9edd3f06b98067c2c2d2a2cad89942b6704f. Requirements taken from the judge's own procedure documents' text layers.
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.