Lake Butler Community Page News Tidbits

Submitted by Judge Mitchell D. Bishop

Last week, on April 6, 2020, the Florida Supreme Court issued an administrative order continuing the modifications to court procedures in Florida through May 29, 2020, in light of COVID-19 guidelines.  All of the Florida Supreme Court’s orders regarding COVID-19 can be found at this link:  https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/Emergency.  The Chief Judge of the 8th Judicial Circuit (Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy, and Union) has issued guidance for local court operations that effect the entire circuit and each individual county. 

Here is what that means for Court hearings and procedures in Union County.   Court operations will continue while reducing in-person hearings to a minimum.  The following are classified as “Essential and Critical Trial Court Proceedings”:  First Appearances, Criminal Arraignments as necessary, Bond Hearings for individuals in custody, Dependency Shelter Hearings, Juvenile Detention Hearings, Injunction Hearings (related to violence against the person), Risk Protection Orders, Emergency Petitions for Appointment of Guardian, Baker Acts and Marchman Acts, and Petitions for Extraordinary Writs regarding Constitutional Rights.

Many of these hearings involve individuals in custody, thus, they will be conducted in-person while allowing attorneys and other participants to appear telephonically or through electronic means to the maximum extent possible.  All other hearings will either by conducted entirely telephonically or through video teleconference or they will be continued.

There will be no jury selection, jury trials, or Grand Jury proceedings through May 29, 2020.  Speedy trial remains suspended until June 1, 2020.

Here is how we will handle the following court divisions:

County Civil: we have a few cases docketed for dates in May that will be conducted telephonically.  The parties will receive a new notice with information to call in for the hearing.  For landlord-tenant cases, the Governor suspended all eviction proceedings for non-payment of rent through May 18, 2020.  Disputes over lease agreements may be filed.  If the basis is only non-payment of rent, nothing further will happen in the case until after May 18, 2020.  If the dispute is over anything other than non-payment of rent, the case will move forward to the extent that hearings can be conducted telephonically or through video.

Small Claims:  Because most of these cases require mediation, which is best conducted in person, they will be continued to dates in June or July.  The Court will add additional hearing dates to the calendar to allow more cases to be heard and address any backlog of cases.

Misdemeanor and Criminal Traffic: Violation of Probation hearings and Change of Pleas for individuals in custody will continue on their regularly scheduled date or be reset as needed.  Arraignments for individuals out of custody will occur telephonically and/or through video.  Anyone with an “MM” or “CT” case currently scheduled for a hearing in May will receive a new notice to appear with information to call in at the appropriate time for your case to be heard.  The compliance docket (individuals on payment plans to pay court costs and fees) will be continued to a later month.

Civil Traffic: will be continued to a later month.

Juvenile Delinquency:  out of custody cases will be continued to another month.  New notices to appear are forthcoming from the Clerk of Court.  In custody juvenile cases will be reviewed and addressed individually.  There is a protocol for handling detention hearings in person.

Felony: The felony division has an emergency docket for bond hearings, change of plea, and other emergency matters.  For these hearings, attorneys will attend in person and/or electronically.  In addition to the emergency dockets, the Court will also hold in-custody review dockets (case management) for violations of probation and new criminal cases.  These matters will be conducted by telephonic or video appearance only.  The Clerk of Court will notice all cases that are continued to the last known address of each defendant.  It is vital that each defendant keep their address updated with the Clerk of Court, bondsman (if applicable), attorney, and probation officer (if applicable).

Circuit Civil Cases: (Family Law, Probate, Domestic Violence, Civil):  There is a protocol in place to hear domestic violence cases and shelters on an emergency basis when necessary. Questions regarding this process can be directed to Court Administration. Other requests to hear cases on an emergency basis should be reduced to writing and filed in the court file for review by the presiding judge.

All new Domestic Violence Hearings will be heard on Fridays rather than Wednesdays. The Clerk of Court will notify parties of the correct date. All other Circuit Civil, Family Law and Probate hearings will be conducted by video conference, and/or by telephone, or the cases may be continued. The Court’s Judicial Assistant is reaching out to the parties in each case to determine how to proceed

Cases that are currently set for hearing will be heard by video or telephone conference whenever that is possible. Hearings that must be heard in person, at the discretion of the presiding judge, shall be cancelled and rescheduled for a later time.

Dependency:  hearings will be conducted by video as they were at the beginning of April.  Parties should contact their attorneys for call-in information.  If parties are self-represented, they should contact their family care counselor for the call-in information.

Child Support: these cases will be handled similar to Dependency.  Individuals with a court date for May will receive a new notice and instructions from the Florida Department of Revenue on how to call-in/long-in for a telephonic/video appearance.

Your case number tells you what type of case you have.  For example, a county civil case would be styled, 63-2020-CC-0001.  The two letters in the middle are the division code.

Here are the division codes:

CA – Circuit Civil
CC – County Civil
CF – Circuit Felony
CJ – Juvenile Delinquency
CP – Circuit Probate
CT – Criminal Traffic
DP – Dependency
DR – Family and domestic relations
DV – Domestic Violence
GA – Guardianship
MH – Mental health (Baker Acts/Marchman Acts)
MM – Misdemeanor
SC – Small Claims
TR – Civil Traffic

If you have questions about your hearing date and time, contact your attorney, or, if self-represented, please call the Clerk of Court or the Judicial Assistant of the Judge presiding over your case.  Contact information can be found at https://unionclerk.com/ or https://circuit8.org/.