Summary
The Florida Supreme Court certifies the need for three additional trial court judgeships for fiscal year 2021/2022: one circuit judgeship in the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit and two county judgeships in Hillsborough County. The Court certifies no additional district court judgeships and declines to decertify any existing judgeships. The opinion also requests legislative funding for ten judgeships authorized the prior year but not funded because of a gubernatorial veto.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the Court should certify a need for additional judgeships for fiscal year 2021/2022.
- Whether the Court should decertify any existing district-court, circuit-court, or county-court judgeships.
- How the weighted-caseload methodology and relevant qualitative factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and statutory jurisdictional changes, affect the determination of judicial need.
Holdings
- The Court certified the need for three additional trial-court judgeships: one circuit-court judgeship in the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit and two county-court judgeships in Hillsborough County.
- The Court declined to decertify any district-court, circuit-court, or county-court judgeships, notwithstanding that the two-step analysis in isolation suggested decertification of certain county-court positions.
- The Court certified no need for additional judgeships in the district courts of appeal.
Key quotations
“This opinion fulfills our constitutional obligation to determine the State’s need for additional judges in fiscal year 2021/2022 and to certify our “findings and recommendations concerning such need” to the Florida Legislature.” (at 1)
“Certification is “the sole mechanism established by our constitution for a systematic and uniform assessment of this need.”” (at 1)
“Having conducted a quantitative assessment of trial and appellate court judicial workload and having also considered the various qualitative factors, workload trends related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and jurisdictional changes, we certify the need for three additional trial court judgeships in Florida” (at 8)
Factual background
The Court had previously certified ten additional trial-court judgeships, which the Legislature authorized but whose funding was vetoed because of statewide budget concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. For fiscal year 2021/2022, the Court evaluated judicial workload using weighted caseload data supplemented by local secondary factors, while accounting for pandemic-related delays, anticipated increases in filings and pending workload, changes to county-court monetary jurisdiction, and transfers of appellate jurisdiction from circuit courts to district courts of appeal.
Procedural history
The Court reviewed requests and workload data from the district courts of appeal, circuit courts, and county courts under its constitutional certification authority and Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.240. It considered objective weighted-caseload data, secondary factors, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, jurisdictional changes, and prior certifications before certifying three additional trial-court judgeships and declining to decertify any existing judgeships.