New Court Filing Convenience Fees

The Florida state court e-filing portal is increasing the convenience fees associated with filing documents through the portal, effective tomorrow, and with very little notice. The Portal is not really fully functional when it comes to initiating appeals — they haven’t quite figured out how to accept the portion of the filing fee that goes to the District Courts of Appeal, and only some Circuits accept the portion of the fee that goes to the Circuit Court Clerk. But clients and attorneys alike should be aware of these new charges, in addition to the statutory fee amounts.

The announcement sent out Tuesday states:

Today, the Florida Courts E-Filing Authority voted to increase the convenience fee associated with filings. Effective July 1, 2016, the rates will increase to $5.00 per filing when paying with echeck and 3.5% when paying with a credit card. The increased fees were deemed necessary to cover expenses associated with the operational costs of payments and transactions. To implement this change, the portal will be unavailable on 6/30/2016 from 9PM until midnight eastern time zone.
For further information, please visit https://www.myflcourtaccess.com/ to review documents and other meeting information.

President’s Day is Not a Holiday in Florida State Court

Back in October, I pointed out that Columbus Day is not a holiday in Florida state courts. A pro se appellant has learned the hard way that neither was President’s Day. See Harold v. State, 110 So. 3d 451 (Fla. 2d DCA March 27, 2013). Luckily for the appellant, it is a criminal case and he has the opportunity to apply for a belated appeal pursuant to Fla. R. App. P. 9.141(c). But a civil litigant would be out of luck, so be sure to analyze those deadlines carefully!

Florida Supreme Court Implements Electronic Filing and Other Rule Changes

The Florida Supreme Court, in a revised Order SC11-399 (Oct. 18, 2012) [.pdf], has adopted a host of rule changes at every court level in order to implement electronic filing and service. The centerpiece of the change to electronic filing are new Florida Rules of Judicial Administration Florida Rules of Judicial Administration 2.520 (Documents) and 2.525 (Electronic Filing). Together, these two rules govern the filing of any document that is a “court record.” Rule 2.520 is the “why,” defining electronic records, and Rule 2.525 is the “how-to”, explaining the nuts and bolts of how to file electronically. So be sure to read both very carefully.

To implement these new system-wide rules, the Court also adopted changes to the rules of civil, criminal, family, probate, small claims, and appellate procedure.

Electronic filing becomes mandatory in civil, probate, small claims, and family law divisions of the trial courts, as well as for appeals to the circuit courts in these categories of cases, on April 1, 2013, at 12:01 a.m. For criminal, traffic, and juvenile divisions of the trial courts, as well as for appeals to the circuit court in these categories of cases, the effective date is October 1, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.

The changes are generally technical, but wide-sweeping. The rules affected include Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure 9.020 (Definitions), 9.110 (Appeal Proceedings to Review Final Orders); 9.120 (Discretionary Proceedings to Review Decisions of District Courts of Appeal); 9.125 (Review of Trial Court Orders and Judgments Certified by the District Courts of Appeal as Requiring Immediate Resolution by the Supreme Court); 9.130 (Proceedings to Review Non-Final Orders and Specific Final Orders); 9.140 (Appeal Proceedings in Criminal Cases); RULE 9.141. (Review Proceedings in Collateral or Postconviction Criminal Cases); RULE 9.142. (Procedures for REview in Death Penalty Cases); RULE 9.145 (Appeal Proceedings in Juvenile Delinquency Cases); RULE 9.146. (Appeal Proceedings in Juvenile Dependency and Termination of Parental Rights Cases); RULE 9.160. (Discretionary Proceedings to Review Decisions of County Courts); 9.180 (Appeal Proceedings to Review Workers’ Compensation Cases); 9.200 (the Record); 9.210 (Briefs); 9.220 (Appendix); 9.360 (Joinder); 9.500 (Advisory Opinions to the Governor); 9.510 (advisory Opinions to Attorney General); 9.900 (forms).

I encourage every practicing attorney to read SC11-399 very carefully. The most unfortunate change, in my view, is that the Court renumbered the definition of Rendition, from 9.020(h) to 9.020(i). The new 9.020(h) could easily have been put at the end, but now practitioners must be aware to both cite to the correct new subdivision when citing the rule on rendition, and to research both the old and the new numbering system when conducting research. I don’t see why adding such confusion over an already high-confusion area of the rules was really necessary.