Dependency Trial Cadence: Lists at 1 Week, Motions at 2 (or… — Palm Beach County, FL · BenchPath

Dependency Trial Cadence: Lists at 1 Week, Motions at 2 (or Waived), Briefs at 4 — Division JA/JM

High confidence· verified September 9, 2026Case Management15th Jud. Cir., Juvenile Division JA/JM Divisional Instructions

Summary

Judge Small runs dependency trials on a fixed clock from the trial-setting hearing: witness/exhibit lists in 1 week, pre-trial motions in 2 weeks (late ones deemed WAIVED), joint case brief, case law, and redacted records in 4 weeks — and DCF drafts the proposed order within 14 days, with unrecorded objections waived.

Applies to

Florida > Fifteenth Judicial Circuit > Palm Beach County > Juvenile Division JA/JM (Judge Lisa S. Small)

Source of truth

"To be filed and exchanged no later than one (1) week after the trial-setting hearing." / "any motions not timely filed will be deemed waived." / "To be filed no later than four (4) weeks after the trial-setting hearing." / "The proposed Order shall be provided to the Court no later than fourteen (14) days from the date of the hearing" / "the Court will not accept Agreed Orders for Case Plan Approvals."

Official source: 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small)
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

Reviewer note: Verified against the live official page on 2026-07-05. 30-day recheck scheduled. | 2026-08-03: the source (rendered DOM (headless Chromium)) no longer contains this rule's quoted text; dropped to medium pending re-composition against the current version. | Superseded in practice by fl15-div-ja-instructions (composed 2026-08-03 from the current page after the July rotation). [MEDIUM CONFIRMED 2026-08-03 (paraphrase-class): source re-fetched live (sha256 dc81cb78a056b905daaa437b5238c94f12de033fe242a919d40e6a586f56c919); all 5 quoted source fragment(s) verified live. Text remains a summary — verbatim recomposition queued.] [RECOMPOSED VERBATIM 2026-08-04 (campaign wave, fully-anchored): 5 bullet(s) quoted whole from the live page, sha256 dc81cb78a056b905daaa437b5238c94f12de033fe242a919d40e6a586f56c919; the prior summary-class text is superseded.] Verbatim from the division's live instruction page (https://www.15thcircuit.com/division/ja/instructions), harvested 2026-08-04; each bullet is quoted whole from the page, whitespace normalised only. [moved from the text 2026-09-14]

Juvenile Dependency

Change history

August 6, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 5, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 4, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 3, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 1, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 31, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 30, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 29, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 28, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JA/JM Instructions (Judge Small). Review before republishing dependent rules.