Two District Courts Allow Stipulated Enlargements of Time

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Today’s the day that the Fifth District Court of Appeal’s Administrative Order allowing stipulated enlargements of time go into effect. The Fifth joins the Fourth District Court of Appeal in allowing parties to agree to an enlargement, and then sign a Notice of Enlargement informing the court of the agreement. The Notice need not be signed by both parties, though it must be agreed to by both sides. Be very careful with your calendaring — the Fifth and Fourth have different tolerance levels for the number of days that will be allowed to be extended by stipulation before requiring a motion. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other District Courts of Appeal follow suit soon to take these tedious but necessary motions off of the court’s plate.

Agreed Enlargements of Time in the Fifth DCA

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Following the trend started by the Fourth District Court of Appeal, the Fifth District Court of Appeal recently decided to take motions for enlargement of time off of the plate of both the judges and court staff by issuing an administrative order [.pdf] allowing parties to instead stipulate to an agreed enlargement of time. Effective March 1, 2013, parties can agree to up to 90 days worth of enlargements for initial and answer briefs, and up to 60 days for a reply brief, by merely filing a stipulation. Notably, this is less time than the Fourth DCA allows before requiring a motion. The Court has a preferred form for the stipulation, so be sure to follow the language of the order. The procedure goes into effect starting March 1, 2013.

Enlargements beyond those deadlines will still require leave of court. And my guess would be that the Court will not be happy to see an enlargement of time motion come across its desk after 90 days.

Mandatory Appellate e-Filing Delayed

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To allow more time for the deployment of technology to handle it, the Florida Supreme Court has delayed implementation of mandatory e-filing in the Florida appellate courts. The order [.pdf] sets the new deadlines as follows:

  • February 27, 2013, for the Supreme Court.
  • July 22, 2013, for the Second DCA.
  • September 27, 2013, for the Third DCA.
  • October 31, 2013, for the Fourth DCA.
  • November 27, 2013, for the Fifth DCA.
  • December 27, 2013, for the First DCA.

I find it interesting, but not surprising, that the First and Fifth — both of which have already implemented the eDCA filing system — are the last to be brought into the new eFiling system.  They already have an eFiling system that works for them, and I don’t blame them for having difficulties in changing it.