Judge Daniel B. Merritt, Jr.: Judge preferences — Hernando County, FL · BenchPath

Fifth Cir. — Judge Daniel B. Merritt, Jr.: Judge preferences

High confidence· verified September 9, 2026Judge PreferencesFifth Judicial Circuit — captured and sha256-hashed 2026-07-24

Summary

3 summarised requirements on judge preferences.

Applies to

Fifth Judicial Circuit — Judge Daniel B. Merritt, Jr. only. Practices change without notice; the court's own published text controls. Procedural information only; not legal advice.

Source of truth

Attorneys may appear in person or by Zoom for many matters, but attorneys and defendants must appear in person at the pretrial conference immediately preceding trial.

Official source: 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures)
Source health: Healthy · checked October 24, 2026
Effective date: —
Last verified: September 9, 2026benchpath-reverify-2026-09-08 (live text containment) | prior: benchpath-cw-2026-08-04

Provenance record

Source sha256: . Corpus categories: APPEARANCE, COURTESY_COPY, SCHEDULING. Quote status as recorded by the researcher: NORMALIZED_FROM_OFFICIAL_SOURCE; NOT A VERBATIM QUOTE. PARAPHRASE — published at medium confidence because the corpus itself marks this text as a summary, not a quotation. Published during the 2026-07-24 completeness pass. [RECOMPOSED VERBATIM 2026-08-04 (campaign wave, topical (July quotes no longer live)): 2 bullet(s) quoted whole from the live page, sha256 1fef1f997f8044f318fc0f63d7eca18f2d74a9c360c5d52314c649e1050c394c; the prior summary-class text is superseded.] [RECOMPOSED VERBATIM 2026-08-04 (campaign wave, topical (July quotes no longer live)): 2 bullet(s) quoted whole from the live page, sha256 1fef1f997f8044f318fc0f63d7eca18f2d74a9c360c5d52314c649e1050c394c; the prior summary-class text is superseded.] Verbatim from the division's live instruction page (https://www.circuit5.org/courts-judges/hernando-county/judiciary/daniel-b-merritt-jr/), harvested 2026-08-04; each bullet is quoted whole from the page, whitespace normalised only. [moved from the text 2026-09-14]

Criminal Traffic Criminal — Felony DUI / BUI Criminal — Misdemeanor Bond & Pretrial Release Domestic Violence Battery Traffic (Civil Infractions)Post-Conviction (Rule 3.850)Sealing & Expunction Violation of Probation

Change history

August 6, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 5, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 3, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 2, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 1, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 31, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 30, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 29, 2026Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.