News from the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller

Clerk’s Court Operations Post Pandemic

Pam Childers

COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted across the State of Florida. The Florida Supreme Court has followed this trend with the issuance of AOSC 21-17 on June 4, 2021. AOSC 21-17 provides the local court authority to eliminate court ordered mandates such as wearing masks and social distancing as soon as June 21, 2021. A participant and observer in court proceedings may wear face masks and request to be physically distanced. While courts in Florida and the Escambia County Clerk and Comptroller never fully ceased operations, civil case proceedings were delayed or reprioritized. AOSC 21-17 takes steps to keep cases and the use of technology in the courtroom moving forward.

As a precursor to AOSC 21-17 and in compliance with AOSC 20-23 Amendment 12, Chief Judge Miller, on April 30, 2021, issued AO202112, providing a plan to manage civil cases and the backlog created by the pandemic. As judges and support staff review pending cases, a determination will be made on whether each case is complex, streamlined, or general and case management orders will be entered accordingly to set deadlines for service, discovery, mediation, and pretrial motions. Civil jury trials resumed on June 8, 2021, but are currently limited to one case per week with jury selection taking place on Tuesdays, rather than Monday. The duration of civil jury trials is not to exceed three days, exclusive of jury selection. At this time, Escambia County Circuit Court has more than two thousand pending civil jury trial cases, which includes approximately one thousand Hurricane Sally related cases with additional lawsuits being filed daily.

Another major change made by AOSC 21-17 is the elimination of COVID-19 related juror excusals and postponements. Effective June 21, 2021, AOSC 21-17 eliminates the express COVID-19 related excusals as set forth in previous Administrative Orders of the Florida Supreme Court. This change applies equally to civil and criminal jury trials and should increase prospective juror attendance thereby ensuring sufficient jury pools.

In addition, CDC’s eviction moratorium is set to expire July 31, 2021, which could potentially inundate the Court with new eviction cases, while pending eviction cases affected by the moratorium are likely to resume as well. Likewise, some mortgage lenders have issued their own moratoriums and those moratoriums will likely expire or be modified in tandem with the CDC’s eviction moratorium.

The Escambia County Clerk’s Office is working hard to prepare for the increase in filings as a result of the backlog. The Clerk’s office continues to cross train personnel and work with the judiciary on implementation of the new requirements.

The Clerk’s Office is currently reviewing remote services that were implemented due to the pandemic. Changes such as mobile friendly payment plan applications will stay, while remote marriage ceremonies will transition back to in-person. Our office continues to promote online services such as e-filing, payment of court fines and fees and record requests. In-person services that continued uninterrupted by the pandemic, such as domestic violence injunctions and Baker and Marchman Act petitions, will remain unchanged. During state budget hearings, Clerk Pam Childers requested additional funding needed to hire more staff in the civil departments in an effort to help better manage the backlog.

Authored by Cheri High, Director of Court Services, Civil, on behalf of Pam Childers, Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller.