In May 2024, with an amendment in early December, the Florida Supreme Court approved the creation of one new rule of civil procedure and modified 13 others. These changes take effect January 1, 2025 and some of them apply to existing cases as well as those filed after January 1st. The changes are intended to streamline and compress the timelines for civil litigation, while making certain procedures identical or nearly identical to the procedures used in Federal court. The changes will not only affect how attorneys litigate in Florida’s state courts, but will also flow through to clients with new disclosure requirements affecting when clients must provide documents and information to counsel and new deadlines affecting how quickly clients must advance litigation. Gone are the days of filing suit and seeing what happens—litigants must be prepared to move quickly whether the plaintiff or defendant. 

Upfront Discovery Disclosures

The change that will most immediately affect clients is the imposition of a new initial disclosure rule added into existing Rule 1.280. Within 60 days of service of the complaint, a party must disclose: 

1. The name, address, and telephone number of each individual likely to have discoverable information, and the subject of the information;
2. A copy or description by category and location of all documents in the party’s possession custody or control that the party may use to support its claims or defenses;
3. A computation of each category of damages claimed by the disclosing party and supporting documents; and
4. A copy of any insurance policy that may be applicable to the claims and defenses.

This means that instead of being able to gather substantial documents or discovery after the filing of the lawsuit or even after service of all of the parties, litigants must now gather most of their documents and information before or at the very beginning of the lawsuit, and provide them to the other side. While historically available discovery methods remain available (interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admissions, etc...) the initial disclosure process must be completed before a party can use other methods of discovery. Litigants must make the disclosures based on information reasonably available to them, and cannot refuse to make disclosures or limit them due to another party’s failure to do so.

For the balance of discovery, amended rule 1.280 also requires that discovery be proportional to the needs of the case, when considering the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the parties’ resources, and the importance of the discovery. The amended rule also imposes a duty to supplement responses, both as to traditional discovery and the initial disclosures. Failure to do so can result in sanctions and exclusion of documents and information in later proceedings. 

Expedited Case Management

The Florida Supreme Court also completely re-wrote Rule 1.200, revising all case management procedures in Florida. No later than 120 days following the commencement of an action, the Court must enter a case management order assigning civil cases to a streamlined, general, or complex track. Streamlined cases are presumed to take only 12 months to get to trial, with an 18 month presumption for general and a 30 month presumption for complex. Eighteen types of proceedings are exempt from this case management and litigation track assignment requirement.

Deadlines in these case management orders are strictly enforced under the new rules and cannot be changed absent a court order. Intermediate deadlines in case management orders can be modified by an agreed order so long as the modification does not affect the ability to comply with the remaining dates in the case management order. Further, deadlines cannot be altered by a motion for extension of time—only a court order can adjust them.

Once a trial date has been set, a party must meet the requirements of amended Rule 1.460 to obtain a continuance. Under the amended rule, continuances, however, are disfavored and courts are instructed to rarely grant them, and only upon good cause shown. Further, motions for continuances must provide concrete dates for when the need for the continuance will have been addressed (i.e. witness availability, etc...) such that an appropriate new trial date can be set. In addition to severely limiting the ability to obtain continuances of trial, Rule 1.090 has also been amended to require good cause to exist for seeking any extension of time, and to require a showing of excusable neglect in the event the extension is sought after the deadline has passed.

With defined case management tracks, strictly enforced case management orders, and limited opportunities for extensions of time or continuances, litigants should expect the typical lawsuit timeline to be compressed. Litigation may have to move forward even while the parties explore settlement or consider adding parties to litigation. 

Consistent Changes Throughout the Rules

Many other rule changes are intended to support the goals of expedited and streamlined litigation that the aforementioned changes attempt to achieve. For example, Rule 1.510 governing summary judgment has been amended to require a response to a motion to be filed within 40 days of the filing of the motion, with the hearing date to be set no earlier than 10 days after the expiration of that response deadline. No longer is the summary judgment response deadline tied to a hearing.

The rules governing interrogatories and requests for production require that objections be stated with specificity including reasons, and for objections to interrogatories, any objection not stated is deemed waived. For requests for production, an objection must be accompanied by a statement as to whether responsive documents are being withheld as a result of the objection. Failure to comply with these amendments can result in sanctions, including instructing a jury that the party failed to comply with the rules of discovery.

Further, the pleadings in a case no longer need to be closed in order for a trial date to be set. Not only does this mean that trial dates can (and likely will) be set early, but it also means that amending a pleading will no longer be a basis to delay trial. 

One New Rule

In addition to all of the changes described above, the Florida Supreme Court has also added a requirement that before filing a non-dispositive motion, the moving party must confer with the opposing party in good faith. New Rule 1.202 also provides for specific certifications that must be included in motions to which the rule applies, which include details regarding the efforts to confer and resolve the motion without court intervention. Both the moving party and non-moving party can face sanctions for failing to comply with the conferral process. The new rule does not apply to 12 types of motions or to motions that do not require notice to the other party under statute or rule (for example, following the entry of a default).

Clients should expect that the changes described above will affect the timing, speed, outcome, and cost of litigation, plus the potential for faster and compressed demands on their business and personal life.