Florida Practices and Procedures Online

Transcription

1 Florida Procedures: Getting Started Introduction Tab Text Introduction Florida Practices and Procedures Online Introduction Welcome to the Florida Practices and Procedures online support. Material for study support has been provided by Judge George Sarduy, Judge Gladys Perez, and Magistrate Debbie Magid. Before you begin, you should either purchase or download the court rules that will be the focus of this course. Click Here for Court Rules Once you have the rules, you are ready to begin!

2 What are Rules? Tab Text Procedural Rules Court rules are the guidelines courts use for hearings, trials, filing of documents, and other matters related to actions in Florida courts. Procedure is very important, and familiarity (but not memorization) of the rules will make you a more complete paralegal. As you review the selected rules for this course, take notes or highlight parts of the rules you find interesting or that seem critical. By doing this, you will become more familiar with the rules so that when you are asked to answer a procedural question later on you will find it much easier to access them. After all, accessing the rules is the ultimate goal, not memorization. Following is a list of the Florida court rules: Florida Rules of Civil Procedure The rules for civil trials.

3 Florida Rules of Judicial Administration Rules involving hearings related to lawyers and judges. Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure Guidelines for criminal trials. Florida Probate Rules Rules governing wills and estates following a person's death. Florida Rules of Traffic Court The rules for courts dealing with traffic violations. Florida Small Claims Rules Rules for cases involving a lesser amount (under $5,000). Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure Rules for trials and hearings involving juvenile defendants. Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure Guidelines for appealing trial court decisions to an appellate court. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure Rules for Family Court hearings and trials. Florida Evidence Code (Found within state statutes) These rules govern the admission of evidence in court. They differ from most sets of rules in Florida because instead of being an independent set of rules, they are contained within a part of the Florida statutes. Will this class be covering all of these rules? No. This class will concentrate on the following rules: Florida Rules of Civil Procedure Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure Florida Evidence Code Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure The skills developed in this course, however, will help you access any court rules. Are the rules law? Yes. Court rules are law. The difference between statutes (often called a "code") and rules is that statutes usually deal with what is called "substantive" law, whereas rules deal with how to proceed with a trial for a violation of that "substantive" law.

4 Substantive Law Statutes are usually considered substantive law. Procedural Law Court rules are considered procedural law. Using procedural rules A few hints as you use court rules: 1. Look for definitions within the rules. These will be helpful in understanding the subject matter that specific rule covers. 2. When you interpret rules, do not hesitate to use a legal dictionary, or to ask an attorney (or your instructor, during this class) if you have questions. But if you break the rules into elements, and then read each element individually, you will find it much easier. 3. The rules set forth time limits for filing documents or for responding to documents that have been filed. Pay close attention to any rule dealing with time computation.

5 How to Study Tab Text Studying for this online class is a bit different from other classes. The goals of this class are the following: First and foremost, become familiar with the various rules and the structure of the rules. Students will see a list of the most critical rules under a tab titled "The Rules." As you read, do not memorize or attempt to become an instant expert. Instead, become familiar with the rule and pay attention to how the rules are organized so that you will be able to more quickly access them later in this course and in your career. As you read the assigned rules, if you have questions simply your instructor. (It may be best to make a list and send all questions at once when you have completed reading the assigned rules.) Learn how to access the rules when posed with a procedural question. This is where the Review Questions and Review Answers will help you practice accessing the rules. Finally, a quiz for each set of rules is provided.

6 Learn to compute time deadlines using the rules. As mentioned, to achieve the above goals it is important that you do not attempt to memorize the rules. Instead, read any assigned rules, but do not "study" them (unless otherwise advised). It is impossible to memorize the rules, and dangerous to try. After all, rules change. And our memories are not perfect. So if a rule is memorized incorrectly, or if that rule changes, any memorization may actually result in malpractice. So get familiar enough with the rules so that it will be easier to find answers to procedural questions.

7 Florida Courts Tab Text Florida Court Structure Florida courts are similar to most state court systems. There is a local-level trial court, a state-level trial court, an intermediate level appellate court, and a high appellate court. To start with, just click to download the following Florida Court Chart. FLORIDA STATE COURTS County Courts (local-level trial court) This court is of "limited jurisdiction" because it only takes cases of lower amounts, misdemeanor, DWI/DUI, and miscellaneous criminal cases. Also traffic and non-administrative parking cases. In addition, county courts handle some preliminary hearings before sending appropriate cases up to the state trial court, the Florida Circuit Court. Florida Circuit Courts (state-level trial court) The main trial court in Florida. Handles most tort, contract, and real property cases, as well as mental health, estate, domestic relations, and felony cases. This court also acts as an appellate court for cases appealed from the County Courts. Florida District Courts of Appeal (intermediate appellate court) Most appeals must go through the Florida District Court of Appeals before being appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. (The major exception is that if death is the sentence assigned by a Florida Circuit Court, the appeal goes straight to the Florida Supreme Court.) There are five District Courts of Appeal in Florida that cover various parts of the state. Florida Supreme Court (highest state court) The highest court in Florida. The court of last resort. The only appeal from the Florida Supreme Court is to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court is not required to hear appeals. Instead, the appealing party must request permission to appeal by filing a Writ of Certiorari. If the writ is approved, the court will hear the case. If not, the case is over. (One exception is death penalty cases, which the Florida Supreme Court is required to review.)

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9 The Best Hint! Tab Text Create your own index! This may sound strange, but the most important thing you can do during this class is to create your own index to the rules you study. At first you may ask, "Why would I do that? The rules have a Table of Contents." There are two reasons why, despite this, you should create your own index. 1. The Table of Contents is not alphabetical While the Table of Contents groups rules by subject matter, it does not do so alphabetically. This can sometimes make it more difficult to find a needed rule. By creating an alphabetically ordered index, you will be able to more quickly access rules that may answer posed procedural questions. 2. Creating your own index will reinforce familiarity Just as important, by typing in entries for your own index, the subject matter will start to sink in. How do I create the index? It's not hard at all. Create the index as you go. Here are some tips: 1. Create a separate index for each set of court rules. 2. Create the index entries as you read the rules for this class. 3. Create a Word document for the index you are working on. 4. As you read each rule, look for important words and phrases to use as entries. For example, when reading Rule in the Rules of Civil Procedure some terms might be "Affirmative Defense," "defense," "answer," and "counterclaim." In your Word index document, you would create an entry like: affirmative defense, defense, answer, counterclaim, You do not have to record your entries alphabetically as long as you put the Rule after the term. This is because when you are finished you can use Word to automatically place all of the terms in alphabetical order (see below). 6. Try to identify one, two, or three terms for each rule. Some rules may have only one, some may have even more than three. There is no exact amount.

10 How to alphabetize using Word Word provides a very easy way to organize even the longest list of terms alphabetically. After you have finished your entries, just follow these steps: 1. Highlight all of the entries (you can just choose Select All). 2. On the top of the Word toolbar, in the Paragraph group, click on the Sort icon (see image below). 3. Select Sort by Paragraphs (which should be the default). 4. Click OK. That's it! This is why it is much more efficient to concentrate on your entries (and each entry's corresponding rule) and leave the alphabetizing to Word. Want to create a Super-Index? If you want to create an index that will cover all rules (in addition to the individual rules indexes), all you have to do is be a bit more specific when creating your entries. In other words, specify the title of the rules within the entries. For example, imagine that you have the following entries from the Civil Rules and the Criminal Rules: affirmative defense, Civ P defense, Civ P answer, Civ P counterclaim, Civ P subpoena, Crim P defense, Crim P warrant, Crim P arrest, Crim P While you want to create an individual index for both Civil and Criminal rules, by specifying the title of the rules (such as "Civ P" for Civil Procedure), and using the Word sorting tool, you are able to combine the indexes to create a Super- Index: affirmative defense, Civ P answer, Civ P arrest, Crim P counterclaim, Civ P defense, Civ P defense, Crim P subpoena, Crim P warrant, Crim P Pretty cool!

11 Okay, now it's time to really get going. Open your Rules of Civil Procedure and go to the next part of this course!

12 Credits Tab Text Questions, answers, and other commentary provided for this site by Deborah Magid. Deborah Magid is a General Magistrate in the Family Division of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. She also teaches legal research and writing at St. Thomas University School of Law. She is a former Assistant State Attorney, a former President of the statewide organization of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers ("FAWL") and a former President of the Miami-Dade FAWL Chapter. She was the 2002 recipient of the Miami-Dade FAWL President's Award and the 2003 recipient of the University of Miami Law Women's "Women Who Make a Difference" Award. In addition to serving on the board of Casa Valentina, she is a board member of the HIV Education and Law Project. Ms. Magid has served on a Florida Bar Miami-Dade Grievance Committee as well as The Florida Bar's Simplified Forms, Family Law Rules and Legal Needs of Children Committees. Since 2000, she has been a regular contributing author for The Florida Bar practice manual, Florida Proceedings after Dissolution of Marriage. Ms. Magid is instructs in the University of Miami Paralegal Certificate Program teaching in the areas of Florda Procedures, Foundational Skills, Authority, Legal Research and Writing.