IN RE: AMENDMENTS TO the FLORIDA RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE (2020)

The Court has for consideration comments on the amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure Form 1.997 (Civil Cover Sheet) previously adopted in this case and the Civil Procedure Rule Committee's (Committee) response to the comments and suggested additional amendments to the civil cover sheet form and instructions. The Court has jurisdiction ¹ and further amends the civil cover sheet form and instructions as suggested by the Committee.

Background

As relevant here, in the November 14, 2019, opinion in this case, the Court amended the civil cover sheet form and instructions to (1) 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 future adjustments to the county court jurisdictional limit, and (2) implement statutory changes that increased the county court jurisdictional limit to $30,000 effective January 1, 2020, and require the Office of the State Courts Administrator (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, 2021.² See In re Amends. to Fla. Rules of Civ. Pro., Fla. Small Claims Rules, & Fla. Rules of App. Pro.—Jurisdiction, 283 So. 3d 802, 803-04 (Fla. Nov. 14, 2019). The Court modified the Committee's proposed amendments to remove “Real property/Mortgage foreclosure” from the “County Civil” case types listed under section III (Type of Case) in the form and instructions. Id. at 803. Because the amendments were not published prior to their adoption, the Court published the amendments for comment. Id. at 803-04.

Seven comments and one supplemental comment have been filed. One of the comments was filed by the Committee questioning the Court's removal of “Real property/Mortgage foreclosure” from the County Civil case types. See Alexdex Corp. v. Nachon Enterprises, Inc., 641 So. 2d 858 (Fla. 1994) (holding that circuit courts and county courts within the county courts’ statutory monetary jurisdictional limit have concurrent jurisdiction over matters of equity, including foreclosure actions). One of the comments urges the Court to further amend the civil cover sheet form to “distinguish between residential and non-residential evictions” in County Civil case types in order to make that data available to those studying residential evictions. The remainder of comments primarily contend that (1) new section II (Amount of Claim) of the form, which asks for the estimated dollar amount of the claim, is inconsistent with section 768.042(1), Florida Statutes (2019), which prohibits the amount of general damages sought from being stated in a complaint in a personal injury or wrongful death action, and (2) the specific estimated dollar claim amount provided in the cover sheet could be used by the opposing party in the case for tactical reasons.

In its response to the comments, the Committee offers several amendments to the civil cover sheet form and instructions to address the various issues raised in the comments. According to the response, the Committee gave the commenters in this case and several other entities ³ the opportunity to provide feedback on the suggested amendments; but no feedback was offered. The Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of The Florida Bar unanimously approved the suggested amendments.

After reviewing the comments and the Committee's response, and determining that the suggested amendments adequately resolve the issues raised in the comments, the Court further amends the civil cover sheet form and instructions as suggested by the Committee.

Amendments

First, the Court amends section II (Amount of Claim) of the form to replace the dollar sign and space where the estimated dollar amount of the claim is to be inserted with six claim amount range options, from “$8,000 or less” to “over $100,000.00.” Two new sentences also are added to section II of the form explaining that “The estimated amount of the claim is requested for data collection and clerical processing purposes only. The amount of the claim shall not be used for any other purpose.” Similar explanatory language is added to the instructions to section II of the form.

Next, the Court adds “Real property/Mortgage foreclosure” to the County Civil case types in section III (Type of Case) in the form and instructions. The new instruction, lettered (AO), explains that the “Real property/Mortgage foreclosure” case type includes “all matters involving claims up to $30,000 relating to the possession, title, or boundaries of real property” and ‘[a]ll matters involving foreclosures or sales of real property up to $30,000, including foreclosures associated with condominium associations or condominium units.” The County Civil case types instructions currently lettered (AO) through (AQ) are relettered (AP) through (AR), respectively. Finally, section III of the form is further amended to add “Residential Evictions” and “Non-residential Evictions,” as subcategories of the “Evictions” County Civil case type.

Accordingly, the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 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 immediately upon the release of this opinion.

It is so ordered.

APPENDIX

FOOTNOTES

1.   Art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const.

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

3.   The Committee sought feedback from the Appellate Court Rules Committee, the Small Claims Rules Committee, the Florida Courts Technology Commission, OSCA, the E-Filing Portal Authority Board, the Conference of Circuit Court Judges, and the Conference of County Court Judges.

PER CURIAM.

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