Effective September 1, 2012, E-Discovery amendments to the following
existing Florida Rules of Civil Procedure drafted in my subcommittee are effective: 1.200
(Pretrial Procedure); 1.201 (Complex Litigation); 1.280 (General
Provisions Governing Discovery); 1.340 (Interrogatories to
Parties); 1.350 (Production of Documents and Things and Entry Upon Land
for Inspection and Other Purposes); 1.380 (Failure to Make Discovery;
Sanctions); and 1.410 (Subpoena). These rules will now include
Electronically Stored Information or ESI. See Florida Supreme Court
E-Discovery amendments opinion at--http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2012/sc11-1542.pdf
Additionally, mandatory E-service begins in civil, probate, small claims, and family law divisions of the trial courts, as well as in all appellate cases. Service by E-mail under Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.516 is deemed complete when sent. E-mail service is made
by attaching a copy of the document to be served in PDF format. The
E-mail must contain the subject line "SERVICE OF COURT DOCUMENT" in all
capital letters, followed by the case number of the relevant proceeding.
The body of the E-mail must identify the court in which the proceeding
is pending, the case number, the name of the initial party on each side,
the title of each document served, and the sender’s name and telephone
number. The E-mail and attachments together may not exceed 5 megabytes
in size or must be divided into separate e-mails (no one of which may
exceed 5 megabytes) and labeled sequentially in the subject line. Attorneys practicing in the
criminal, traffic, and juvenile divisions of the trial court may
voluntarily choose to serve documents by e-mail under these
procedures or may continue to operate under existing rules.
E-mail service will be mandatory for attorneys practicing in remaining
divisions on October 1, 2013. See E-Service opinion at-- http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2012/sc10-2101.pdf
Finally, though civil ECF is well-established in Orange County, new electronic filing requirements adopted by the Fifth District Court of Appeal begin today by Administrative Order-- http://www.5dca.org/Clerk/Administrative%20Orders/AO5D12-03_08_12.pdf. Those who practice in this area should register with the appellate court's eDCA system-- http://edca.5dca.org
