Florida Supreme Court seeks more Judges, describes workload impacts

A new year could bring more judgeships if the highest court in the state has its way.

The Florida Supreme Court is making the case for 50 more lower-level Judges in an opinion released Thursday.

The opinion precedes the Legislative Session, as lawmakers must authorize the additional Judges based on the constitutional directive to the court to make its recommendation.

The high court wants 23 more circuit court judgeships (seven of which are in the 20th Circuit), 25 county court judgeships (including seven in Miami-Dade), and a pair of additional district court judgeships on the Lakeland-based 6th District Court of Appeal, which came into existence last year after legislative authorization.

Impacts on the newest appellate court are such that a Judge is on loan from a different circuit currently.

The Supreme Court says no decrease is needed in circuit court judgeships, county court judgeships, or district court judgeships, but does contend that “excess judicial capacity” in the 2nd District Court of Appeal should be handled by attrition. That means new Judges wouldn’t be hired as vacancies arise in the Tampa-based court.

Also in the ruling, the Supreme Court released findings from its most recent survey of Judges regarding the time spent on cases and its impact on the “quality of justice.” The workload study was conducted last year. It was the first in eight years as the pandemic delayed the normal five-year cycle.

The argument laid out in the opinion is that the increased complexity of some cases, particularly civil disputes, require more time for case management than was previously thought.

The same conditions apply to “the review and hearing of non-dispositive pretrial motions in circuit and county criminal cases; the review and hearing of dispositive pretrial motions in circuit civil cases; the preparation of findings and orders related to trials and final hearings in circuit family cases; and the hearing of cases involving pro se litigants and interpreters.”