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Experts discuss impact of Florida’s sweeping civil justice reforms at packed ABOTA Ft. Lauderdale CLE

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ABOTA Event logo

A free, ABOTA Ft. Lauderdale lunchtime CLE regarding the Supreme Court’s new civil justice reforms nearly crashed the Zoom platform Wednesday, attracting more than 3,000 concerned judges, lawyers, and paraprofessionals.

“Practical Aspects of the New and Revised Florida Rules of Civil Procedure,” featured 17th Judicial Circuit Administrative Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips, veteran West Palm Beach appellate attorney Kara Rockenbach Link, and veteran Palm City civil trial lawyer Paul Regensdorf.

ABOTA Ft. Lauderdale President and moderator Tammy Alvarez urged viewers to let colleagues know a recorded version will appear on the group’s website at Abotaftl.org as early as Monday.

“We have over 3,000 people with us today, and that is our capacity,” she said.

Paul Regensdorf

Paul Regensdorf

Regensdorf, a Civil Procedure Rules Committee member, said the rule revisions that took effect January 1 represent the biggest procedural change to Florida’s civil justice system in more than 50 years.

“What’s going to happen folks? Nobody knows for sure. There certainly will be problems, there’s no question,” he said.

The Civil Procedure Rules Committee and the Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration Committee are weighing more refinements, Regensdorf said, and lawyers should remain alert. He urged interested parties to post suggestions for further refinements to [email protected].

The reforms are contained in separate rules petitions that Supreme Court approved December 5,  In Re: Amendments to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, SC2023-0962. and In Re: Amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.510 and New Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.202, SC2024-0662.

They grew out of a 2021 Judicial Management Council workgroup proposal that was designed to make the resolution of civil cases more efficient.

Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips

Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips

Judge Phillips said she has been working with the 16 other judges in the Circuit Civil Division in the past weeks to write new local orders, including case management and trial orders.

Policies and procedures will vary by judicial circuit, such as the definition of what constitutes a “good faith effort” to meet and confer with an opponent, Phillips noted.

“My perspective is two attempts to reaching out to your opposing counsel, either email, text, or picking up the phone,” Phillips said, referring to the 17th Circuit. “If no response within 48 hours, you may file the motion.”

Above all else, “be patient with one another, be professional, and communicate,” she said.

Florida courts overcame major challenges in recent years, including a tsunami of case filings prompted by the Legislature’s tort reforms in 2023, and before that, a deadly COVID-19 pandemic that ushered in the modern era of remote proceedings, Phillips noted.

“It’s hard to forget 2020, the rules and the way we practiced law literally changed overnight” she said. “We learned Zoom, we learned how to upload documents…”

From initial disclosure to a new duty to supplement discovery, to mandatory sanctions for certain rule violations, the changes are numerous and demand careful study, the panelists said.

“If you don’t know them you are going to get left behind, and sanctions can lead to dismissal,” Phillips said. “We as judges must comply with these rules as well.”

Phillips urged viewers to remember four takeaways:

  • Review the administrative order in each circuit.
  • Review the case management order, and uniform trial order.
  • Review “and keep handy” the new Rules of Civil Procedure.
  • Review the judge’s policies and procedures.

“Even though we strive for uniformity, we are all constitutional officers, and we have our likes and dislikes,” she said.

Kara Rockenbach Link

Kara Rockenbach Link

Lawyers who haven’t already should create a “tickler” system to keep track of case deadlines, and if they dislike digital assistants, get a wall chart, Rockenbach Link suggested. Regensdorf advised time stamping documents to verify that deadlines were met.

A veteran Standing Committee on Professionalism member, and its former chair, Rockenbach Link said the transition will be much smoother if lawyers remember the “Golden Rule,” and treat others as they wish to be treated.

“The Florida Rules of Civil Procedure have come in line with our professionalism obligations,” she noted.

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