This Division uses Zoom for virtual appearances. You can access the Zoom courtroom here: https://zoom.us/j/9171020630. The Zoom meeting ID is 917-102-0630. You will not need a password for access. Please include the Zoom link in any notice of virtual hearing you prepare.

The Court will presumptively hear the following by Zoom:

• An uncontested hearing

 

• A nonevidentiary hearing or case-management conference that (1) does not involve a discovery dispute, (2) lasts no more than 30 minutes, and (3) the Court does not require to occur in person

 

• An uncontested adoption

Appearing virtually means keeping your camera on during your hearing and displaying both your first and last names. You may use, in addition to—but not a substitute for—your camera, a telephone for audio purposes.

Court personnel may cancel a hearing noticed but is ineligible under the above criteria for virtual appearances.

The court does not usually allow hybrid hearings in which one side appears in person while another appears virtually. So if the parties and their counsel, if represented, mutually prefer, the court will allow all to appear in person instead. When in doubt, confer with the other side, file a motion, and submit a proposed order in advance. 

If you are scheduling an uncontested matter for hearing, please book it under “CASE MANAGEMENT/UMC.” This will put your case on a multicase docket. Count on your hearing or case-management conference to last no more than five minutes.

Filing Motions. The E-Portal does not automatically notify the division when a party or an attorney representing a party files a motion, pleading, or other paper. Parties and their counsel should prepare their cases with that understanding. In an appropriate situation, the judge will rule on a motion without scheduling a hearing. So unless the law requires otherwise, the court does not guarantee a hearing on any given motion.

Emergency Motions. One should be cautious about calling a matter an emergency, because improperly doing so is a basis for a sanction. In seeking emergency relief, the moving party should certify that the emergency has not been caused by a lack of due diligence but by circumstances beyond the movant’s control. The motion should further certify that the moving party has not filed it for any improper purpose, such as to harass, delay, or increase the cost of litigation. It should further explain why the matter is an emergency and describe the harm that would occur if the matter is not heard as an emergency. Consider including words to the following effect: “[The moving party] seeks [brief statement of the requested relief] and requires a [specify length] hearing on or before [date] because [explain].”

Before moving for emergency relief involving children, a party or a party’s counsel should carefully study Smith v. Crider, 932 So. 2d 393 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006), and Loudermilk v. Loudermilk, 693 So. 2d 666 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997), including the cases cited on page 668 of that opinion. After receiving a filed emergency motion, a deputy clerk will notify the division, and the judge will enter a handling order. From there, the parties and any counsel may decide what next steps to take based on what the handling order says.

If you have registered your email address with the clerk but have not received the handling order within 48 hours after you file your emergency motion, please contact the division at famlawdive@fljud13.org and attach a copy of your timestamped motion. The judicial assistant will confirm whether the motion reached the division.

The division strongly prefers email for communication. Use famlawdive@fljud13.org to set or cancel hearings. Remember that an email to the division or any other court addressee is not the place to litigate your case or seek legal advice, which no court personnel can lawfully provide.  If you are seeking relief, you must file an appropriate document with the clerk. Emailing the division is not a substitute for filing. Unless excused under rule 2.516(b)(1)(D), an unrepresented party, like an attorney, must register his or her email address with the clerk for service of documents.

When you reach out to set a hearing, attach a timestamped copy of the relevant pleading, motion, or other paper and state how much time you are requesting. You must include all parties, including any applicable third party, on any communication you send to this division. Otherwise, due to judicial-ethics considerations, you may not get a response. The communication may also end up filed with the clerk. If asked, please be prepared to explain in writing your reasons for requesting the time you have requested. 

A case manager helps the court only with prejudgment cases in which both sides are representing themselves. If your case has a manager, you will have his or her contact information. You may not contact the case manager—or any other court personnel—for any legal advice.

Hearing Notice. A hearing notice must include the following in the body in addition to what the applicable law, including rules and administrative orders, requires:

1. The title of the motion to be heard;
2. The date the motion to be heard was filed and docket number if available;
3. The amount of time reserved for the hearing;
4. The hearing location or Zoom information, including the meeting ID and the link to the Zoom meeting.

After filing the notice, please email a timestamped copy to the judicial assistant.

Scheduling. If you are representing yourself without counsel, please email the judicial assistant, copying the other side, for help with scheduling. If you are an attorney, please schedule your hearing on the Judicial Automated Workflow System—better known as JAWS. If you need more than 30 minutes, please email the judicial assistant and copy the other side. Only after the judicial assistant confirms the hearing date by email may the moving party or counsel file and serve the hearing notice. Be prepared, if asked to do so, to file a motion explaining why your hearing will require the amount of time you have requested.

Unless the court orders a specific time, the parties must cooperate with one another in scheduling a hearing even if they do not agree that the amount of time requested for the hearing is sufficient, do not agree that the matter is ripe for hearing, or have other legal or procedural objections to the hearing. When a party asks for a hearing, the judicial assistant will offer available times. The parties should try to agree on the schedule. If none of them work for both sides, the judicial assistant may offer additional times. If the parties still can’t agree on a hearing time, the party or attorney rejecting the judicial assistant’s offer should be prepared at the court’s direction to plainly specify the basis for rejecting each offered hearing time. If a scheduling impasse occurs, the judicial assistant may unilaterally schedule the hearing, or the judge may rule on the matter without one if allowed under the applicable law. The goal is to minimize any gamesmanship—real or perceived—in setting a hearing and to help ensure that the parties have fair access to the court. The parties and any counsel should ordinarily reach back out to the judicial assistant only after they have coordinated the hearing date and time.

Unilateral Hearing Notice. A party may unilaterally notice a hearing only if the other side fails to cooperate with scheduling. The scheduling party must prepare a hearing notice that is labeled “unilateral” and describes the efforts made—including all means, dates, and times of contact—to reach an agreed hearing date. The court may strike a unilateral hearing notice that does not comply with the above and cancel the hearing.

Amending a Hearing Notice. A party may amend a filed-and-served hearing notice only with the court’s permission. If you need to amend such a notice, please email the judicial assistant and identify the requested changes. Once you have permission to amend, you may file and serve the amended hearing notice.

Cross-noticing a Hearing. A party may cross-notice a hearing only with the court’s permission. To request permission, email the judicial assistant, copying all parties and stating what you would like to have heard. If the court grants permission, file an amended notice of hearing and serve a copy on all other parties or attorneys. Be sure to schedule enough time for all to argue the matters in both the notice and cross-notice. The court may deny without prejudice the relief sought in a cross-notice prepared without prior permission.

Expedited Hearing. If the court should advance a nonemergency cause on the calendar, please email a copy of the relevant filing and request for an expedited hearing to the judicial assistant. Please cite any supporting legal authority for advancing the matter in your request for an expedited hearing.

Canceling a Hearing. If you no longer need a scheduled hearing, e-file a cancelation notice and email a timestamped copy to the judicial assistant right away so that the judicial assistant can give the time to someone else. You may cancel a hearing that another party set only with the consent of all affected or the court’s permission. You may not cancel a clerk- or court-scheduled conference, trial, or other hearing.

Temporary Relief Hearing. The time limit for a temporary-relief hearing is one hour.

Reserving Enough Hearing Time. Please be sure to reserve enough hearing time. Both sides will get equal time, and the judge will need some of the reserved time to rule. The court expects focused presentations, and each side should count on having about one-third of the reserved time.

If you have any evidence to present at an evidentiary hearing or trial, please upload your exhibits through the E-Portal before the hearing or trial. Label each exhibit for easy access and submission to the clerk in real time. Some suggested labels are “Petitioner’s Exhibit 1” or “Respondent’s Exhibit 2.” Prefer numbers to letters.

Although the judge will admit electronically uploaded exhibits, the parties should make a binder for use on the witness stand, and, if they so choose, at counsel’s table. Please do not deliver any binders that you may use with witnesses or at counsel’s table in advance without the judge’s or judicial assistant’s prior permission. Instead, have them with you on the date of your hearing or trial. You will need to take any unadmitted paper exhibits back with you at the end of the day of your hearing or trial or they will be recycled.

You may email caselaw or other authorities to famlawdive@fljud13.org before the hearing or trial or have copies of the authorities with you at the hearing to hand to the judge.

Unless the court orders otherwise, the parties must have completed mediation, and all discovery issues must have been resolved before trial. After filing and serving a notice for trial, you may request available pretrial and trial dates by emailing the judicial assistant. Your email must copy all other parties and include the case number and the amount of time requested. Both the pretrial and trial are in-person events.

Unless otherwise instructed, you should upload a proposed order or judgment as a PDF through the E-Portal to the division’s queue. You can access the E-Portal from www.fljud13.org. If you run into any issues with uploading into the queue, please contact the JAWS Helpdesk at 813-272-6513. And except as otherwise instructed, you may, but are not required to, submit a copy of your cover letter, proposed order or judgment, and any attachment to the judicial assistant.

If you are a pro se litigant in need of submitting a proposed order, you may do so by emailing it to the judicial assistant at famlawdive@flju13.org.

Please include a cover letter with your proposed order, stating whether all parties agree to its form and content and copying all who should receive service. If a party thinks that the proposed order does not accurately state the court’s ruling or otherwise objects to the order, that party should submit a competing order immediately with a cover letter identifying the objections to the proposed order.

When you submit a proposed final order or judgment, please also submit a final disposition form to close your case.

Continuances. If all parties agree to a continuance, please email the judicial assistant to remove your case from the docket so that the court can give the time to others. Upload an agreed proposed order for a continuance to the E-Portal. Before doing so, please ensure that the email addresses of all associated with the case are on JAWS under “Associated Parties.” All will get an electronically signed conformed copy of the order.

If a party moves to continue a trial, but there is no agreement to do so, the court will hear the motion at the beginning of the reserve trial time. Please email the judicial assistant and copy other parties for further instructions.