Out-of-Custody Defendants Appear In Person for Core Events… — Palm Beach County, FL · BenchPath

Out-of-Custody Defendants Appear In Person for Core Events — Division V

High confidence· verified September 9, 2026Remote / Zoom Hearings15th Jud. Cir., Criminal Division V Divisional Instructions

Summary

Judge Coates requires defendants not in custody to be physically present for plea conferences, arraignments, calendar calls, motion hearings, and trials; Zoom is allowed only for dispositions and status checks.

Applies to

Florida > Fifteenth Judicial Circuit > Palm Beach County > Criminal Division V (Judge Howard Coates, Jr.)

Source of truth

Defendants not in custody must be physically present for "plea conferences, arraignments, calendar calls, motion hearings, and trials" / "For other matters such as case dispositions or status checks, the defendant may appear in person or via Zoom."

Official source: 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates)
Source health: Healthy · checked October 23, 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 | Superseded in practice by fl15-div-v-instructions (composed 2026-08-03 from the current page after the July rotation).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 8794e5be91e184a16f44b93d908f95342971d32744159d753e9bbed5f558e549); all 2 quoted source fragment(s) verified live. Text remains a summary — verbatim recomposition queued.] [RECOMPOSED VERBATIM 2026-08-04 (campaign wave, fully-anchored): 1 bullet(s) quoted whole from the live page, sha256 02737741ac016bb2bb389dd36c01277be963696fb604705aa570e3c3f4f0a257; the prior summary-class text is superseded.] Verbatim from the division's live instruction page (https://www.15thcircuit.com/division/v/instructions), 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 5, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 4, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 3, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 2, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 1, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 30, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 29, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 28, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 27, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division V Instructions (Judge Coates). Review before republishing dependent rules.