Rule 2.215. Trial Court Administration

(a) Purpose. The purpose of this rule is to fix administrative responsibility in the chief judges of the circuit courts and the other judges that the chief judges may designate. When a rule refers to "the court," it applies to a judge of the court when the context permits.

(b) Chief Judge.

(1) The chief judge is a circuit judge who possesses managerial, administrative, and leadership abilities and is selected without regard to seniority.

(2) The chief judge is the administrative officer of the courts within the circuit and directs the formation and implementation of policies and priorities for the operation of all courts and officers within the circuit, consistent with branch-wide policies. The chief judge has administrative supervision over all judges and court personnel within the judicial circuit. The chief judge is responsible to the chief justice of the supreme court. The chief judge may enter and sign administrative orders, except as otherwise provided by this rule. The chief judge has the authority to require that all judges of the court, other court officers, and court personnel comply with all court and judicial branch policies, administrative orders, procedures, and administrative plans.

(3) The chief judge maintains liaison in all judicial administrative matters with the chief justice of the supreme court, and ensures the efficient and proper administration of all courts within that circuit, considering available resources. The chief judge must develop and file with the supreme court an administrative plan that includes an administrative organization capable of effecting the prompt disposition of cases; assignment of judges, other court officers, and all other court personnel; control of dockets; regulation and use of courtrooms; and mandatory periodic review of the status of the inmates of the county jail. The plan must be compatible with the development of the capabilities of the judges so that each judge will be qualified to serve in any division, creating a judicial pool from which judges may be assigned to various courts throughout the state. The administrative plan must include a consideration of the statistical data developed by the case reporting system. Questions concerning the administration or management of the courts of the circuit must be directed to the chief justice of the supreme court through the state courts administrator.

(4) The chief judge assigns judges to the courts and divisions and determines the length of each assignment. The chief judge is authorized to order consolidation of cases and assign cases to a judge or judges for the preparation of opinions, orders, or judgments. All judges must inform the chief judge of any contemplated absences that will affect the progress of the court's business. If a judge is temporarily absent, is disqualified in an action, or is unable to perform the duties of the office, the chief judge or the chief judge's designee may assign a proceeding pending before the judge to any other judge or any additional assigned judge of the same court. The chief judge may assign any judge to temporary service for which the judge is qualified in any court in the same circuit. If it appears to the chief judge that the speedy, efficient, and proper administration of justice so requires, the chief judge may request the chief justice of the supreme court to assign temporarily an additional judge or judges from outside the circuit to duty in the court requiring assistance. The assigned judges are subject to administrative supervision of the chief judge for all purposes of this rule. When assigning a judge to hear any type of postconviction or collateral relief proceeding brought by a defendant who has been sentenced to death, the chief judge must assign the case to a judge qualified under subdivision (b)(10) of this rule. Nothing in this rule restricts the constitutional powers of the chief justice of the supreme court to make assignments.

(5) The chief judge may designate a judge in any court or court division of circuit or county courts as "administrative judge" of any court or division to assist with the administrative supervision of the court or division. To the extent practical, the chief judge should assign only 1 administrative judge to supervise the family court. The designee is responsible to the chief judge, has the power and duty to carry out the responsibilities assigned by the chief judge, and serves at the pleasure of the chief judge.

(6) The chief judge may require the attendance of prosecutors, public defenders, clerks, bailiffs, and other officers of the courts, and may require from the clerks of the courts, sheriffs, or other officers of the courts periodic reports.

(7) The chief judge must regulate the use of all court facilities, regularly examine the dockets of the courts under the chief judge's administrative supervision, and require a report on the status of the matters on the dockets. The chief judge may take action as necessary to make the dockets current. The chief judge must monitor the status of all postconviction or collateral relief proceedings for defendants who have been sentenced to death from the time that the mandate affirming the death sentence has been issued by the supreme court and take the necessary actions to assure that the cases proceed without undue delay. On the first day of every January, April, July, and October, the chief judge must inform the chief justice of the supreme court of the status of these cases.

(8) The chief judge or the chief judge's designee must regularly examine the status of every inmate of the county jail.

(9) The chief judge may authorize the clerks of courts to maintain branch county court facilities to retain county court permanent records of pending cases in the branch court facilities, and to retain and destroy these records in the manner provided by law.

(10) Assigning Capital Cases.

(A) The chief judge may not assign a judge to preside over a capital case in which the state is seeking the death penalty, or collateral proceedings brought by a death row inmate, until that judge has become qualified to do so by:

(i) presiding a minimum of 6 months in a felony criminal division or in a division that includes felony criminal cases; and

(ii) successfully attending the "Handling Capital Cases" course offered through the Florida Court Education Council. A judge whose caseload includes felony criminal cases must attend the "Handling Capital Cases" course as soon as practicable, or at the direction of the chief judge.

(B) The chief justice may waive these requirements in exceptional circumstances at the request of the chief judge.

(C) Following attendance at the "Handling Capital Cases" course, a judge remains qualified to preside over a capital case by attending a "Capital Case Refresher" course once during each of the subsequent continuing judicial education reporting periods. A judge who has attended the "Handling Capital Cases" course and who has not taken the "Capital Case Refresher" course within any subsequent continuing judicial education reporting period must requalify to preside over a capital case by attending the refresher course.

(D) The refresher course must be at least a 6-hour course approved by the Florida Court Education Council containing instruction on the penalty phase, jury selection, and proceedings brought under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851.

(11) The failure of any judge to comply with an order or directive of the chief judge is considered neglect of duty and may be reported by the chief judge to the chief justice who has the authority to take any appropriate corrective action. The chief judge may report the neglect of duty by a judge to the Judicial Qualifications Commission or other appropriate person or body or take other appropriate corrective action.

(12) At the call of the chief justice, the chief judges of the circuit court and district courts of appeal must meet on a regular basis to discuss and provide feedback for implementation of policies and practices that have statewide impact including, but not limited to, the judicial branch's management, operation, strategic plan, legislative agenda, and budget priorities. The meetings must occur at least quarterly and be conducted in person, if practicable. At the discretion of the chief justice, any of these meetings may be combined with other judicial branch and leadership meetings.

(13) The chief judge must exercise reasonable efforts to promote and encourage diversity in the administration of justice.

(c) Selection. The chief judge must be chosen by a majority of the active circuit and county court judges within the circuit for a term of 2 years commencing on July 1 of each odd-numbered year or by the chief justice if there is no majority for a term of 2 years. The election for chief judge must be held no sooner than February 1 of the year during which the chief judge's term commences beginning July 1. All elections for chief judge must be conducted as follows:

(1) All ballots are secret.

(2) Any circuit or county judge may nominate a candidate for chief judge.

(3) Proxy voting is not permitted.

(4) Any judge who will be absent from the election may vote by secret absentee ballot obtained from and returned to the Trial Court Administrator. A chief judge may be removed as chief judge by the supreme court, acting as the administrative supervisory body of all courts, or may be removed by a two-thirds vote of the active judges. The purpose of this rule is to fix a 2-year cycle for the selection of the chief judge in each circuit. A chief judge may serve for successive terms but no more than 8 years. A chief judge who is to be temporarily absent must select an acting chief judge from among the circuit judges. If a chief judge dies, retires, fails to appoint an acting chief judge during an absence, or is unable to perform the duties of the office, the chief justice must appoint a circuit judge to act as chief judge during the absence or disability or until a successor chief judge is elected to serve the unexpired term. When the office of chief judge is temporarily vacant pending action within the scope of this paragraph, the duties of court administration are performed by the circuit judge having the longest continuous service as a judge or by another circuit judge designated by that judge.

(d) Circuit Court Administrator. Each circuit court administrator is selected or terminated by the chief judge subject to concurrence by a majority vote of the circuit and county judges of the respective circuits.

(e) Local Court Rules and Administrative Orders.

(1) Local court rules as defined in rule 2.120 may be proposed by a chief judge after consulting other judges in the circuit. The chief judge must notify any local bar association within the circuit of the proposal, after which the chief judge must permit any interested person to be heard orally or in writing on the proposal before submitting it to the supreme court for approval. When a proposed local court rule is submitted to the supreme court for approval, the following procedure applies.

(A) Local court rule proposals must be submitted by a chief judge to the clerk's office in the supreme court.

(B) The clerk of the supreme court must submit all local court rule proposals to the Supreme Court Local Rules Advisory Committee within 20 days of receipt from the chief judge. At the same time, the clerk of the supreme court must send copies of the proposed rules to the committees of The Florida Bar impacted by the local court rule along with a notice indicating a date when comments must be filed. The Florida Bar committees, any interested local bar associations, and any other interested person must submit any comments or responses that they wish to make to the Supreme Court Local Rules Advisory Committee by the time set forth in the notice.

(C) The Supreme Court Local Rules Advisory Committee must consider the proposals and any comments submitted by interested parties. The committee must transmit its recommendations to the supreme court concerning each proposal, with the reasons for its recommendations, within 75 days after receiving the proposal from the supreme court clerk.

(D) The supreme court may set a hearing on any proposals or consider them on the recommendations and comments as submitted. If a hearing is set, notice must be given to the chief judge of the circuit from which the proposals originated, the executive director of The Florida Bar, the chair of the Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration Committee of The Florida Bar, any local bar associations, and any interested persons who made comments on the specific proposals to be considered.

(E) A local court rule approved by the supreme court becomes effective on the date set by that court.

(F) The chief judge of the circuit must publish current local court rules on the circuit court's website and make copies of the current, vacated, or rescinded local court rules available for inspection as a public record and provide to any requesting party on payment of the cost of duplication. The clerk of the supreme court must furnish copies of each approved local court rule to The Florida Bar's executive director.

(2) A challenge to an administrative order on the ground that it is inconsistent with a constitution, court rules, local court rules, or with administrative orders entered by the chief justice of the supreme court must be made either by a petition for an extraordinary writ or an objection before the trial court in a pending case in which the administrative order applies.

(3) The chief judge of the circuit must publish current administrative orders on the circuit court's website and retain copies of the current, vacated, or rescinded administrative orders to be available for inspection as a public record and provided to any requesting party on payment of the cost of duplication. The chief judge must direct a review of all local administrative orders on an annual basis to ensure that the set of copies maintained by the clerk remains current and does not conflict with supreme court or local court rules.

(4) All local court rules entered under this section must be numbered sequentially for each respective judicial circuit.

(f) Individual and Divisional Practices and Procedures. Every judge who establishes practices or procedures that apply only when appearing before that specific judge must publish those practices and procedures on the circuit's website. Each division of court that establishes practices and procedures that apply in that division of court must publish those practices and procedures on the circuit's website. No judge or division may establish a practice or procedure that requires attorneys or parties to communicate with the court solely by written letter. Neither a division nor a judge may establish practices or procedures that contradict established law or rule of procedure. The chief judge of each circuit should establish procedures to ensure compliance with the subdivision.

(g) Timely Rulings.

(1) Judge's Duty. Every judge has a duty to enter within a reasonable time an order or judgment on every matter submitted to that judge. Each judge must maintain a log of matters under advisement and inform the chief judge of the circuit at the end of each calendar month of each matter that has been held under advisement for more than 60 days.

(2) Notice of Pending Matter. A party may file with the clerk a notice using form 2.604 that a matter has been held under advisement or is ready for disposition and remains pending without judicial action for more than 60 days. The party must serve a copy of the notice on the presiding judge.

(h) Duty to Expedite Priority Cases. Every judge has a duty to expedite priority cases to the extent reasonably possible. Priority cases are those cases that have been assigned a priority status or assigned an expedited disposition schedule by statute, rule of procedure, case law, or otherwise. Particular attention must be given to all juvenile dependency and termination of parental rights cases, cases involving families and children in need of services, challenges involving elections and proposed constitutional amendments, and capital postconviction cases. The chief judge has the discretion to create a postconviction division to handle capital postconviction, as well as non-capital postconviction cases, and may assign 1 or more judges to that division.

(i) Neglect of Duty. The failure of any judge, clerk, prosecutor, public defender, attorney, court reporter, or other officer of the court to comply with an order or directive of the chief judge is considered neglect of duty and must be reported by the chief judge to the chief justice of the supreme court. The chief justice may report the neglect of duty by a judge to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, and neglect of duty by other officials to the governor of Florida or other appropriate person or body.

(j) Status Conference after Compilation of Record in Death Case. In any proceeding in which a defendant has been sentenced to death, the circuit judge assigned to the case must take action necessary to ensure that a complete record on appeal has been properly prepared. The judge must convene a status conference with all counsel of record as soon as possible after the record has been prepared under rule of appellate procedure 9.200(d) but before the record has been transmitted. The purpose of the status conference is to ensure that the record is complete.

Committee Notes

2008 Amendment. The provisions in subdivision (g) of this rule should be read in conjunction with the provisions of rule 2.545(c) governing priority cases. Court Commentary 1996 Court Commentary. Rule 2.050(h) [renumbered as 2.215(h) in 2006] should be read in conjunction with Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.140(b)(4)(A). 1997 Court Commentary. [Rule 2.050(b)(10), renumbered as 2.215(b)(10) in 2006]. The refresher course may be a six-hour block during any Florida Court Education Council approved course offering sponsored by any approved Florida judicial education provider, including the Florida College of Advanced Judicial Studies or the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges. The block must contain instruction on the following topics: penalty phase, jury selection, and rule 3.850 proceedings. Failure to complete the refresher course during the three-year judicial education reporting period will necessitate completion of the original "Handling Capital Cases" course. 2002 Court Commentary. Recognizing the inherent differences in trial and appellate court dockets, the last sentence of subdivision (g) is intended to conform to the extent practicable with appellate rule 9.146(g), which requires appellate courts to give priority to appeals in juvenile dependency and termination of parental rights cases, and in cases involving families and children in need of services. 2025 Court Commentary. The definitions of local court rules and administrative orders were amended to allow rules of practice and procedure to be issued in administrative orders from trial court chief judges instead of being issued by the local court rules approval process. Criminal Court Steering Committee Note 2014 Amendment. Capital postconviction cases were added to the list of priority cases.