Twentieth Judicial Circuit of Florida, Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee Counties Filing Rules

The final-judgment checklist is required when a case is submitted for Final Judgment.

For an indebted estate, the petition must identify each creditor and provide the nature, amount, and due date of the debt.

After filing a Notice of Trial with the Clerk, email a copy to Civil Case Management.

A transmittal letter or email is requested for submissions to chambers, containing six specified categories of information, copying all attorneys and self-represented parties, and remaining short unless concerns or requests are raised by motion.

A proposed Order of Dismissal must accompany any stipulated dismissal submitted to the Court.

Expert-witness disclosure is due 160 days before trial.

A motion not timely filed and noticed for hearing before docket sounding may be deemed waived or withdrawn.

An agreed Pretrial Conference Order must be submitted at least seven calendar days before the conference, and the Court must have signed and entered an order approving it.

Designated transcript portions supporting exceptions must be delivered to the court and all other parties at least 48 hours before the hearing.

All exhibits must be marked and exchanged at least five full business days before docket sounding.

Questions about the clerk's e-filing process should be emailed to Stacey Mininsohn at stacey.mininsohn@charlotteclerk.com.

Communications to Judge Gentile’s office are preferably submitted by email to the judicial assistant at KDenatale@ca.cjis20.org.

Hearings on motions of five minutes or less may be scheduled in JACS in the designated 9:00–10:00 a.m. timeslots.

Longer hearings may be scheduled through request to Judge Brodie’s Judicial Assistant via email address including all parties on the email.

When the court finds an emergency, it will unilaterally schedule the hearing and all parties must be available unless exigent circumstances apply.

Plaintiffs must serve their actions promptly, and service issues must be addressed promptly and diligently.

Opposing counsel must be copied on the proposed-order e-mail.

An unstipulated motion to cancel a foreclosure sale must be noticed for hearing and served on all parties at least five business days before the hearing.

The motion must be noticed for hearing and served on all parties at least five business days before the hearing.

Attorneys generally must designate a primary email address for electronic service after the initial pleading and file documents through the Florida Courts e-filing Portal.

On the first day of trial, each party's attorney must submit proposed jury instructions and verdict forms in both Microsoft Word and typed form.

Electronically submitted proposed orders must use a recent version of Microsoft Word.

Oversized exhibits may be used at trial, but if practicable they must be reduced to 8 1/2 by 11 inches, with the reduced copy retained by the clerk.

On the first trial day, each party's attorney must submit proposed jury instructions and verdict forms both electronically in Microsoft Word and as typed copies.

Proposed orders must be submitted in Word format and provided to opposing counsel and any self-represented litigant.

Beginning April 4, 2019, proposed orders for Judge Evans must be submitted by email.

Attorneys must designate a primary email address for service and receiving pleadings after the initial pleading and must electronically file documents through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal.

Proposed orders not agreed to by all parties must be submitted to the court by email at the specified address.

Proposed orders should be submitted electronically through the E-Filing Portal.

Proposed orders must be submitted through the Florida Courts E-Portal.

Workload, staffing, and scheduling objections should first be discussed directly with clients and will receive only limited judicial weight.

Continuances are rarely granted and require both an unanticipated event and a showing of good cause.

A hearing covered by the standing order may not be cancelled without express permission from the court.

A stipulation to continue trial does not automatically continue the trial; it must be set for a hearing before docket sounding and should state the reasons for the request.

Deadline extensions are disfavored and may be granted only for good cause with court approval; seeking an extension does not toll other deadlines.

Material already filed with the clerk should not be submitted as a courtesy copy.

A courtesy copy must be submitted to the Court in Chambers when a Motion for Rehearing is filed.

After a motion is filed and appears on the Clerk’s docket, a courtesy copy should be emailed to the Judicial Assistant for the Court’s review.

Copies and envelopes for courtesy copies of orders are required in all foreclosure cases.

A courtesy copy of the Notice of Compliance must be sent directly to the court immediately when the arbitration information is provided.

Prior to filing a motion to compel or for protective order, attorneys should confer with opposing counsel in a good faith effort to resolve the issues raised. Attorneys shall file with the motion a statement certifying that the moving counsel so complied and has been unable to resolve the dispute with opposing counsel.

All motions must comply with Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.202’s conferral requirement before filing.

Motions to withdraw in civil cases must be scheduled before Judge Brodie in a five-minute JACS calendar slot.

The discovery conference must be a substantive in-person or telephone conversation conducted in good faith to resolve the dispute without court action; merely attempting to confer or exchanging self-serving emails or faxes is insufficient.

Before filing a nondispositive motion or a motion listed under Rule 1.202(c), the movant must confer in good faith with opposing counsel, but the requirement does not apply to litigants without lawyers.

Jury instructions must be submitted in one agreed-upon package, appropriately ordered, with disputed instructions flagged.

Subsequent motions may not be piggybacked or cross-noticed onto a scheduled motion's reserved time without prior approval from both the court and the original scheduling attorney.

Exhibits may be filed together in one filing, but the filing must include an index identifying the exhibit pages.

A proposed order must not be submitted until its supporting documents are viewable in the Clerk's system.

A motion should not exceed 20 pages and must use 12-point font with double spacing.

Memoranda or briefs considered for any hearing may not exceed ten pages and must satisfy the specified paper, lettering, and spacing requirements.

An applicant found not indigent may request a hearing to obtain judicial review of the clerk's decision without paying a review fee.

The plaintiff must pay the statutory clerk's fee for copies of each standing order issued and attached to the summons.

The plaintiff must pay the applicable statutory clerk's fee for each copy of the standing order attached to a summons.

Baker Act records are confidential.