Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida, Clay, Duval and Nassau Counties Filing Rules

Discovery motions and motions to compel must include the required certification of a good-faith attempt.

After filing a motion to set a family case for trial or hearing, counsel or pro se parties must coordinate an ex parte date and email the judicial assistant a completed trial-set memorandum and courtesy copies of the motion and notice of hearing as one PDF.

The Joint Pre-Trial Stipulation must identify any proposed pleading amendments.

Emergency verified motions for child pick-up orders must be verified or sworn by the moving party.

When a trial is continued, the plaintiff’s attorney must prepare any amended trial orders.

All communications to the judicial office must be sent by email with the case number, case name, and relevant matter in the subject line.

Attorneys and self-represented litigants must use Form 2.603 whenever their electronic-service email account changes.

Temporary-needs issues must be set before the General Magistrate.

When the Judicial Assistant is absent for more than one day, an automatic reply to received emails provides further instructions for the request.

All court communications must be emailed to DuvalFC@coj.net with a subject line identifying the case number, case name, and relevant matter.

Motions to amend pleadings must be filed by 150 days before the Pretrial Conference and noticed and resolved or agreed to by 120 days before it.

Post-trial motions must be filed within 10 days after the verdict.

Within 30 days after service of the defendants' expert disclosure, Plaintiff may file and serve notice of retained rebuttal experts using the same required information.

Counsel may not file a notice of hearing until the court confirms the hearing by email.

All hearing materials must be received by the court no later than three business days before the hearing.

The movant must provide a blank, stamped envelope to an appointed mediator who is not using the e-Portal.

Notice of an intent to appear in person must be emailed to the Court and, if possible, to all other parties.

The opposing side must receive notice of every default final hearing.

All counsel and unrepresented parties must receive copies of the cover letter and proposed order when those materials are provided to the court.

A party who has not filed a notice designating an email address cannot be served electronically as the sole means of service.

Unless the requesting party agrees in writing otherwise, ESI must be produced in native data format with all associated metadata.

The trial-set memorandum, motion, and notice of hearing must be sent to the judicial assistant as one collective PDF.

A final page containing only the date and/or judicial signature line must also show the order title and case number.

All proposed orders must be submitted in Word format.

The party must bring hard-copy exhibits to court on the hearing date, including copies for the plaintiff/petitioner, defendant/respondent, and judge.

The party filing a motion for trial must email the Judicial Assistant one courtesy copy of the motion together with a completed Division CV-E Trial Set Memorandum.

When an exhibit file exceeds 50 pages, hard copies must be provided to the Court well in advance of the hearing.

Pleadings exceeding 20 pages must be delivered by hand, U.S. mail, or another delivery service.

Hearing materials exceeding 20 pages must be supplied in a binder delivered to the courthouse no later than one week before the hearing.

Judge Norton does not require courtesy copies or case-law materials to be sent to the office.

Immediately upon settlement, submit the notice of settlement and proposed settlement order through the court’s e-portal.

If an unrerepresented party is not using the e-Portal, the proposed order must be submitted to the Court in writing.

Attorneys and self-represented litigants must provide an email address for electronic receipt of signed orders unless excused.

Original-will orders and discharge orders must be submitted directly to the clerk in paper form.

Motions to set for trial and notices for trial must be handled through email only.

Reasonable response-deadline extensions should ordinarily be agreed to by email or correspondence unless time is of the essence or court rules require a motion and order, and arbitrary deadline enforcement should be avoided when no real prejudice would result.

A continuance motion must be written and filed before the Final Pretrial Conference, state that counsel conferred with opposing counsel, include opposing counsel’s position, comply with Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.190(f), and establish good cause.

A party seeking to reschedule mediation for an emergency, serious illness, or other unexpected event must give the Family Mediation Unit at least two business days' notice unless notice is impossible.

Continuances are disfavored, require good cause, and must be requested at least five days before the scheduled court date; absent good cause, the requesting party must sign the motion.

Unless good cause is shown, the continuance motion must be signed by the requesting party.

Before filing a motion, the movant must confer in good faith with the opposing party to resolve the motion’s issues, subject to the listed motion exceptions.

Except for the listed motion types, counsel must meet and confer before a hearing on a motion in Circuit Civil Division B can be scheduled.

A claim that opposing counsel was unavailable does not excuse the conference; the motion must describe attempted conference, the moving party must promptly contact opposing counsel after filing and supplement the motion, and non-moving counsel must promptly respond and provide conference availability.

A moving party must fully comply with First Administrative Order 88-2 before filing a motion to compel under Rule 1.380 or Rule 12.380.

The court will determine the facial sufficiency of a motion to suppress before setting a hearing.

Counsel are encouraged to timely file written argument supporting and opposing their positions.

Emailed exhibits should be sent as one PDF file, or as few PDFs as possible, and include an index, cover sheets before each exhibit, and should be easily identified.

The court encourages parties, where possible, to coordinate and submit one copy of supporting materials.

The parties may attach the plaintiff’s and defendant’s trial witness lists to the joint pre-trial stipulation as exhibits.

A motion to cancel sale, including an emergency motion, must be submitted as early as possible to permit adequate review and action.

A party filing protected health information obtained by subpoena, discovery, or under a qualified protective order must identify it to the Circuit Court Clerk for sealing; a separate sealing order is not required.

The judicial feedback form becomes a confidential document owned by the evaluated judge after evaluating counsel completes and transmits it.

Statements of Material Facts may not exceed 10 pages.

Each party must pay one-half of the mediation costs in advance of or at the start of mediation unless the court orders otherwise.

The court permits junior counsel to handle appropriate hearings, providing experience and helping move the case along.