tHestars ( anDcourts ) realign : FloriDalauncHessixtHDistrictcourtoFappeal appellate Practice Section Chairs : BrandonK . Breslow — Kynes , Markman & Felman , P . A . & DavidM . Costello — FloridaSolicitorGeneral ’ sOffice
By the time you read this , the Second district Court of Appeal will have broken ground on its new Bernie McCabe Second district Court of Appeal Courthouse in St . Petersburg and will be operating solely out of temporary digs in Tampa , Jacksonville will have shifted to become part of the Fifth district , and the new Sixth district Court of Appeal will be up and running in Lakeland .
This massive change in the Florida Court system has commendably been implemented at the speed of light ( well , in a mere six months , which is warp speed when it comes to creating a new governmental entity from scratch ).
asofJanuary1 , theDistrictcourtsof appealtransferred pendingcasestothe sixthiftheyoriginated fromjudicialcircuits withinthesixth ’ s boundaries .
The Florida Supreme Court , in the wake of the legislature approving a new courthouse for the Second district in Pinellas County , convened a workgroup to study the prospect of realignment . 1 The workgroup recommended the creation of a sixth district to balance the workload , reduce travel distance for judges and litigants , and create more opportunities for the those from the Fourth Judicial Circuit ( the Jacksonville-area counties of Clay , duval , and Nassau ) to serve on the district Court level — all of which would promote public trust and confidence in the court system . 2
The Florida Supreme Court adopted the recommendations and certified the need for a sixth district and additional judgeships . 3 The legislature made some tweaks , and the final lineup effective January 1 , 2023 is : first district : Headquarters remaining in Tallahassee , 13 judges ( down from 15 ), drawn from and covering the First , Second , Third , Eighth , and Fourteenth Judicial
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Groundbreaking of the new bernie McCabe Second District Court of appeal Courthouse in St . Petersburg .
Photo courtesy of Jared Krukar
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