IN RE: AMENDMENTS TO the FLORIDA RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE (2019)

The Court has for consideration a joint out-of-cycle report of proposed rule and form amendments, which was filed by The Florida Bar's Civil Procedure Rules Committee, Small Claims Rules Committee, and Appellate Court Rules Committee in response to two requests by the Court,¹ concerning recommendations of the Judicial Management Council's Work Group on County Court Jurisdiction (Work Group),² a suggestion by the Office of the State Courts Administrator (OSCA), and recent statutory changes. The Board of Governors of The Florida Bar unanimously approved all the proposals. The Court has jurisdiction ³ and adopts most of the committees' proposals. However, the Court has modified some of the proposals and declines to adopt, at this time, the proposed amendments to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.030(b)(1) (Jurisdiction of District Courts of Appeal; Appeal Jurisdiction).⁴

Amendments

The primary amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure Form 1.997 (Civil Cover Sheet) and its instructions implement Work Group Recommendation 1.4 that the civil cover sheet be modified to collect information on the amount in controversy in civil circuit and non-small-claims county court cases to be used to evaluate the need for adjustments to the county court jurisdictional limit.⁵ Those amendments, which the Court has modified to be consistent with the circuit courts' exclusive jurisdiction under section 26.012(2)(f) and (g), Florida Statutes (2019), also implement recent statutory changes that, as relevant here, increase the county court jurisdictional limit to $30,000, effective January 1, 2020, and require OSCA to include the claim value of county court and circuit court filings in the reports making county court jurisdiction adjustment recommendations that OSCA must submit to various officials by February 1, 2021.⁶ The primary amendments to Rules of Civil Procedure Form 1.998 (Final Disposition Form) and the instructions to that form are in response to a suggestion by OSCA staff that the form be amended to facilitate the collection of the final judgment amount.

The amendment to Florida Small Claims Rule 7.010 (Title and Scope) increases the small claims jurisdictional limit from $5,000 to $8,000, consistent with Work Group Recommendation 3.1, which the Court voted to pursue.⁷

Accordingly, the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure and Florida Small Claims Rules are amended as reflected in the appendix to this opinion. New language is indicated by underscoring; deletions are indicated by struck-through type. The amendments shall become effective January 1, 2020, at 12:01 a.m. Because the amendments were not published for comment prior to their adoption, interested persons shall have seventy-five days from the date of this opinion in which to file comments with the Court.⁸

It is so ordered.

APPENDIX

FOOTNOTES

1.   See Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.140(f)(1).

2.   See Work Group on County Court Jurisdiction, Recommendations from the Judicial Management Council's Work Group on County Court Jurisdiction (2018) (“Work Group Recommendations”).

3.   Art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const.

4.   The Court refers the proposed amendments to rule 9.030(b)(1) back to the Committee, with directions for the Committee to file a new out-of-cycle report explaining the reasons for and the effect of those amendments.

5.   See Work Group Recommendations at 5.

6.   See ch. 2019-58, § 9, Laws of Fla. (amending § 34.01, Fla. Stat. (2018)).

7.   See Work Group Recommendations at 6.

8.   All comments must be filed with the Court on or before January 28, 2020, with a certificate of service verifying that a copy has been served on the Committee Chairs, Ardith Michelle Bronson, Chair, Civil Procedure Rules Committee, 200 Biscayne Boulevard, FL 25, Miami, Florida 33132-2219, ardith.bronson@dlapiper.com; Maureen B. Walsh, Chair, Small Claims Rules Committee, 50 N. Laura Street, Suite 3300, Jacksonville, Florida 32202-3661, mbwalsh@mcguirewoods.com; and Thomas D. Hall, Chair, Appellate Court Rules Committee, 325 N. Calhoun Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301-7605, thall@mills-appeals.com; and on the Bar Staff Liaisons to the Committees, Mikalla Andies Davis, mdavis@floridabar.org, and Heather Savage Telfer, htelfer@floridabar.org, The Florida Bar, 651 East Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2300, as well as a separate request for oral argument if the person filing the comment wishes to participate in oral argument, which may be scheduled in this case. The Committee Chairs have until February 18, 2020, to file a response to any comments filed with the Court. If filed by an attorney in good standing with The Florida Bar, the comment must be electronically filed via the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal (Portal) in accordance with In re Electronic Filing in the Supreme Court of Florida via the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, Fla. Admin. Order No. AOSC13-7 (Feb. 18, 2013). If filed by a nonlawyer or a lawyer not licensed to practice in Florida, the comment may be, but is not required to be, filed via the Portal. Comments filed via the Portal must be submitted in Microsoft Word 97 or higher. See In re Electronic Filing in the Florida Supreme Court, Fla. Admin. Order No. AOSC17-27 (May 9, 2017). Any person unable to submit a comment electronically must mail or hand-deliver the originally signed comment to the Florida Supreme Court, Office of the Clerk, 500 South Duval Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1927; no additional copies are required or will be accepted.

PER CURIAM.

CANADY, C.J., and POLSTON, LABARGA, LAWSON, LAGOA, LUCK, and MUÑIZ, JJ., concur.