Before 2021, county court decisions in Florida could only be reviewed by higher courts if the county court certified a question of great public importance. Otherwise, the losing party had to file a petition to the district court of appeal (DCA). This led to a backlog of cases and confusion, as each circuit had its own way of handling appeals. Since 2021, the DCAs have been directly reviewing county court cases, leading to over 700 published opinions. In 2021, the law changed and now county court appeals go to the District Courts of Appeal (DCA). Some cases were transferred to the wrong court and had to be sent back. On the criminal side, county courts handle misdemeanor cases, with DUI cases being the most common. These cases involve a lot of legal and procedural issues. People charged with DUIs and other misdemeanors can appeal their cases for a variety of reasons, such as violations of their rights or unfair treatment in court. Sometimes, the state also appeals cases. Cases can involve issues like privacy rights, evidence rules, and separation of powers. The courts have to decide if the appeals have merit and whether the original rulings should be changed. In a case at Mar-A-Lago, a tourist took photos and was handcuffed by police even though they didn’t see the crime happen. The court disagreed on whether the police had the right to do that. Another case involved a battery and the Stand Your Ground law, and the court had to decide which legal process to use. The court said that challenges to the procedure in ruling on Stand Your Ground immunity can be reviewed, but challenges to the merits of the ruling can’t be. In a case called Corbett, the court said that the appellant’s arguments were procedural, but the court dismissed the case because the petition was filed too late. Even though misdemeanor cases aren’t as serious as felony cases, the county courts are still making an impact on the state’s laws. Small claims court handles smaller civil cases worth less than $8,000. It’s meant to be less formal than regular court and is often used by people representing themselves. This can cause problems on appeal because there’s usually no official record of the court proceedings. After a recent change in the law, it’s been decided that certain legal rules still apply in small claims court, even if they weren’t used during the case. The court had to decide how to review a quick decision made in a small claims case, since there was no precedent. They decided to review it from scratch.
In another case, a trial court used the wrong time frame to dismiss a case, and also didn’t give the required notice before doing so. The appeals court said the case should never have been dismissed.
The appeals courts also had to deal with cases where very small amounts of money were at stake, like 14 cents or $4.17. Some judges were annoyed that these cases were taking up court time. One judge said that these cases were only being brought to get money for lawyers, not because of the small amounts of money involved.
In one case, a company sued for 14 cents and ended up getting over $24,000 in legal fees because of it. Another case involved just $1.48. The appeals court said the plaintiff was entitled to get their legal fees paid for the $1.48 case. In a case involving a dispute over interest calculation, the insurer initially appealed but then dropped it. The court later ruled that the provider was not entitled to attorneys’ fees, but the provider appealed and won. The court reversed the ruling and emphasized that the purpose of attorneys’ fees in the statutes is to penalize an insurance company for causing their insured to go to court when the dispute could have been resolved. The court decided not to use the de minimis route to dismiss the case over small amounts of money. The court decided not to get involved in a debate about whether to award attorney’s fees for very small amounts of money in a lawsuit. They said that this is a decision for the legislature to make. They also noted that both sides in the lawsuit continued to fight over a small amount of money, and that this kind of legal battle could continue because of the court’s decision. Some judges in the case agreed with the court’s decision, but they said that the legislature should make the rules clearer to avoid wasting time on small matters in court. Overall, the decision to let the smaller court handle the case was a good thing because it allows the higher courts to focus on bigger issues and helps the legislature make better laws based on real-world cases. Even small crimes can change the law, like the recent case about self-defense. The government made changes to the law, and now it’s better than before.
Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/the-peoples-court-on-appeal-three-years-of-county-court-appeals-to-the-district-courts-of-appeal/
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