Chief Justice Canady Provides Insight on Florida’s Judicial Management Council

Florida's Judicial Management Council: Working to Improve the Administration of Justice for all Floridians

by Charles Canady, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida

As Florida’s chief justice I have the responsibility to interpret and uphold our laws and constitution in my role as a judge.  The job of chief justice comes with another duty of great importance, to serve as the chief administrative officer of the judicial branch and of the supreme court.  To best protect our rights and liberties requires efficient management of resources and a responsive structure.  These tasks are interdependent.  Our Court has recognized the importance of an ongoing concentrated effort to ensure excellence in the administration of justice. 

An integral element of this effort is the Judicial Management Council, created in its current form in 2012, but continuing a long tradition of judicial councils to help guide the branch.

It is an immense undertaking to administer Florida’s courts, and it is a job best done in collaboration.  The chief justice does so first with all the other members on the court.  While our laws and rules provide many administrative powers and duties to the chief justice, the rules often contemplate the chief justice should, and in other instances may, fulfill his responsibilities with the benefit of consultation with other justices. 

Our rules also recognize the importance of seeking guidance beyond the supreme court, an approach with an extensive history going back to the Judicial Council of Florida, created by the legislature in 1953 and allowed to sunset in 1980.  The idea behind this first version of a judicial advisory council has evolved over the ensuing decades with the supreme court establishing different points of focus to serve the needs of the time.

The supreme court created the Judicial Council of Florida in 1985 by adopting a rule within the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration.  The rule called for the Judicial Council to have 23 members and required representation from the four levels of jurisdiction within Florida’s courts.  Also included were representatives of state attorneys, public defenders, clerks of court, The Florida Bar, and the general public. 

The Judicial Management Council was reorganized in 1995 with a rule amendment that set its membership at 21 and added representatives from the governor’s legal office, two legislators, and a member of The Florida Council of 100.  In my pre-judicial career, I briefly served on this version of the Council in my capacity as the governor’s general counsel.  This group focused on strategic initiatives and produced the first long-range plan for the judicial branch.  It was active through 2002 when the court system’s priority became the 2004 implementation of Revision 7 to Article V of the state’s constitution, which transferred a greater responsibility for funding of the state courts system from the counties to the state and was subsequently called “the judicial branch’s greatest challenge in recent history,” in an administrative order.  Revision 7 aimed to advance the unification the State Courts System begun in 1972.

In 2006, the Judicial Management Council was reauthorized, “as a judicial branch advisory council for the purposes of providing a formal mechanism for effective two-way communication about the justice system between major citizen constituencies and the courts, informing the public about the justice system, and providing a unique and broad perspective on significant court initiatives.”  Its membership was set at 27 and closely followed the representation of its predecessor.  The strategic charges presented to this version of the Judicial Management Council were overtaken by the budgetary and workload challenges of the national recession and mortgage foreclosure crisis felt simultaneously beginning in 2007.  The reduced court positions across the state, a hiring freeze, and travel moratorium meant this version of the Judicial Management Council was shelved in 2008.

The underlying benefits of the Judicial Management Council were recognized by the Judicial Branch Governance Study Group created in 2009.  Under the leadership of Justice Ricky Polston, the Study Group’s recommendations were delivered in 2011 and rule amendments were adopted in a 2011 Supreme Court opinion amending, among others, Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.225.  “The Council will become part of a loop that will assist the Court with forward-looking vision, while the Court gets feedback from the trial and district courts, the chief judges, and the conferences,” the majority opinion read, establishing the structure and direction of the council as it is now.

Membership in the Judicial Management Council was set at 15 and its responsibilities narrowed from the scope of previous councils.  The larger purpose of the current version is captured by Justice Polston’s memorable and apt phrase describing the council as the judicial branch’s headlights, shining on the road ahead to alert the branch’s leadership to possible hazards and showing the best way forward.  As chief justice, he appointed members to the Judicial Management Council under the current rule by an administrative order issued November 15, 2012.

It is this version of the Judicial Management Council I now chair.  Its current work, as described below, illustrates just how it performs this important guiding function to the chief justice and the supreme court. As chief justice, fulfilling my role as the branch’s chief administrative officer, my focus is firmly on the litigants who come to Florida’s courts seeking justice and a peaceful, efficient resolution of their disputes.  The members of the Judicial Management Council work hard on the workgroups of the council to provide input to me and recommendations to the Court.

The current active workgroups of the Judicial Management Council are focused on issues that need illumination on the road ahead for Florida’s courts.

Appellate Review of County Court Decisions

This workgroup is required to study and report to the supreme court on whether circuit courts should be uniformly required to hear appeals in panels of judges, whether circuit courts should be authorized to certify intra- and inter-circuit appellate conflict to a district court of appeal, and whether other changes to the appellate review process for county court decisions would improve the administration of justice.

Access Workgroup

This workgroup is charged with advising the council on initiatives and issues related to providing access to justice within Florida’s courts.  Among its projects is the Do-It-Yourself initiative, a program that has resulted in guided interviews now available on the statewide online e-Portal for filings in landlord-tenant cases.  The DIY initiative has further case types in development for deployment on the e-Portal. 

Workgroup on Remote Appearance

This workgroup is to consider how remote appearance technologies may be appropriately employed in the court system to enhance efficiencies and cost effectiveness for both courts and court users.  The workgroup seeks to identify the types of court proceedings in which remote appearance technology may be lawfully and effectively used.  Part of the workgroup’s effort includes a comprehensive review of existing remote appearance technology use and practices. 

Workgroup on Court Costs and Fines

The workgroup is charged with reviewing the imposition of court costs and fines in this state in criminal and traffic cases, and with making recommendations, if warranted, for processes ensuring that the imposition of such assessments does not disproportionately impact low-income individuals in a manner resulting in undue hardship.

The current Judicial Management Council continues in the tradition of advisory councils to the judicial branch in Florida spanning seven decades.  I am appreciative of the experience and conscientious effort the current members bring to this important group and their commitment to the people who come to Florida’s courts seeking justice.  I extend my sincere thanks to them.

• Justice Carlos G. Muñiz, Florida Supreme Court
• Judge Rachel Nordby, First District Court of Appeal
• Judge Robert Morris, Second District Court of Appeal
• Judge Edwin Scales III, Third District Court of Appeal
• Judge Jonathan Gerber, Fourth District Court of Appeal
• Judge Linda L. Nobles, First Judicial Circuit
• Judge Olin Shinholser (retired), Tenth Judicial Circuit
• Judge S. Scott Stephens, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit
• Judge Benjamin Garagozlo, Brevard County
• Judge Robert Lee, Broward County
• Judge Nina Ashenafi Richardson, Leon County
• Thomas Edwards, a Jacksonville attorney
• Laird A. Lile, a Naples attorney
• Steven Seibert, a Tallahassee attorney
• Elisabeth H. Kiel, state courts administrator and non-voting member

Reprinted from the Historical Review/Fall Winter Issue 2019, courtesy of the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society and Chief Justice Charles T. Canady.   The current and past issues of the publications are available at https://flcourthistory.org/Historical-Review