Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, Hillsborough County Filing Rules

A defendant, whether self-represented, through counsel, or in concert with the surety petitioning to have a capias recalled and the forfeiture vacated on procedural or due process grounds, must, prior to the expiration of the statutory time period set forth in Florida Statutes section 903 .26(2)(a), file with the clerk a Motion to Recall Capias, Set Aside Forfeiture and Reinstate Bond in sufficient time to obtain an order no later than the sixty-first day from the date of the notice of forfeiture.

A motion must be filed before requesting or setting a hearing.

The scheduling party must file a notice of hearing and immediately serve all parties after reserving hearing time.

Exhibits must use the prescribed party-and-number label format.

Attorneys and self-represented litigants must update their registered electronic-service email information using Form 2.603 whenever the email account changes.

Attorneys and self-represented litigants must email the judicial assistant and copy all associated parties or counsel when requesting a hearing longer than 30 minutes.

The court will not consider unsolicited communications from nonparties unless the parties agree and want the court to consider them.

Email is the preferred method for communicating with the Judicial Office.

Judge Rich's Zoom Meeting ID is 370-4372-256 and no password is required.

The judicial office may be contacted by email.

A hearing canceled more than 24 hours before its scheduled time must be canceled by the scheduling party through JAWS.

A unilateral notice of hearing may set a hearing with at least 30 days' notice, but only when the parties lack cooperation regarding the hearing date.

A hearing is required when a proposed amended DCM order would extend a particular deadline by more than 90 days.

The court will not provide hearing time before a motion on the underlying issue has been filed.

Documents responding to an order to show cause must be filed no later than five business days before the hearing.

Portal submission is unavailable for proposed orders and judgments when an entitled recipient cannot be served by email, except for the stated foreclosure-final-judgment exception.

Attorneys must not also send a hard copy or email of an e-filed proposed order and cover letter to the court.

Division A requires all orders to be uploaded through the E-Portal.

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

Unless the court directs otherwise, competing orders must be emailed to the court in Word format with the opposing party copied.

The page bearing the court's signature must also contain substantive text; a signature-only orphan page is prohibited.

Each pretrial exhibit must be uploaded separately as an individual PDF file.

All proposed orders must be submitted to the judge’s work queue as PDF files.

All proposed orders must be submitted in PDF format through Florida’s E-filing Portal.

Competing proposed orders must use Word format unless the court directs otherwise.

Every motion or application for relief must certify service of copies on the state and the clerk's legal counsel.

A written bond-reduction motion must be filed with the clerk and emailed to opposing counsel.

At least two business days before the hearing, the moving party must serve all parties and deliver a copy of the temporary-relief hearing memorandum to the judge.

The opposing party or attorney must receive a copy of the email requesting a hearing longer than 30 minutes.

Service of a notice of hearing must occur immediately after hearing time is reserved.

Provide a courtesy copy to the judicial office via email, copying all parties, for the court’s immediate consideration.

Physical paper copies of case law and exhibits must be submitted to the court before the proceeding in which they will be used.

Immediately after filing an extraordinary writ petition, the petitioner must provide one copy to the assigned judge by hand delivery, mail, or email.

Attorneys filing an emergency motion must provide an email courtesy copy to judicial chambers and copy all parties.

Exhibits, motion responses, and case-law copies must reach chambers at least three business days before the hearing or they will not be reviewed.

A hearing may be canceled only with every party's consent, court approval, and notice to the clerk.

An extension or enlargement of time to effectuate service must be requested by a motion filed before the deadline and alleging good cause.

The Court may cancel without notice a unilaterally set hearing that does not describe efforts to agree on a hearing date.

Continuances are disfavored and require a signed motion and a showing of good cause.

Requests for a new court date or continuance must be submitted to the judicial assistant by Monday at noon and approved before filing or submission in court.

Before filing any motion, the moving party must confer in person or by telephone with opposing counsel in a good-faith effort to resolve the motion's issues, subject to the stated exceptions.

Before a Rule 12 motion challenging the complaint, counsel must give written notice of the intended motion and identify the alleged failure to state a cause of action.

If the non-moving party does not file any objection within 10 days of service of the motion, the movant may upload a proposed Order to the Division M work queue. If an objection is filed, a courtesy copy must be provided to the Court at civdivm@fljud13.org.

Every movant must confer in good faith with the opposing party or counsel to try to resolve the issues raised in the motion.

Parties are encouraged to wait at least 10 days after filing a non-dispositive or non-evidentiary motion before setting it for hearing.

Visitation fees must be paid at the Children's Advocacy Center at intake by cashier's check, money order, or personal check.

Multiple exhibits may be submitted together when each has a cover sheet and the single submission is no larger than 50 megabytes.

Please do not submit any hearing binders or other documents to Chambers.

Cross-noticing is prohibited; agreed additions must be cleared with chambers through an amended notice, while unilaterally cross-noticed motions will not be heard and may be denied without prejudice.

Orders may not be uploaded until all required documents are filed and three business days have passed to allow the Clerk to docket them.

Hearing and trial exhibits must be bundled in a binder containing an index, and the exhibits must be tabbed.

Documents of 10 pages or fewer may be emailed to the judicial assistant, while documents over 10 pages must be delivered by mail or hand delivery.

All motions, responses, replies, and memoranda of law must be e-filed in the ePortal and may not exceed 10 pages without leave of court.

Briefs should not exceed ten pages absent good cause or leave of court.

Support and opposition memoranda are encouraged but may not exceed 25 pages.

Case-law submissions by attorneys may not exceed five pages.

The arbitrators' decision must be filed under seal so that it is not disclosed to the presiding judge.

Documents for which confidentiality is requested must be emailed to the judicial assistant for in-camera judicial review.

Documents subject to a confidentiality request must be emailed to the Judicial Assistant for in-camera judicial review.