The Right to Relief: Untimely Notice of an Appealable Order

The right to appeal in Florida’s court system is really important, but there are strict rules about when you can appeal. If you miss the deadline to appeal, you can’t fix it. Sometimes, you might not even know about the order you want to appeal until it’s too late. The rules for what to do in this situation are different for civil cases and government cases. This article talks about the current rules and suggests a solution for government cases. In the civil courts, if someone misses the deadline to appeal a decision, they can ask the court to cancel the decision and make a new one. This gives them a chance to appeal on time. But in administrative courts, there isn’t a clear rule for this. However, some courts have said that administrative agencies can cancel and remake their decisions if someone missed the deadline to appeal because of something out of their control. Some lawmakers have tried to change the law to give people more time to appeal if they missed the deadline, but it hasn’t passed yet. The governor rejected a proposed law, which is a good thing because it would have caused more problems than it solved. The law didn’t explain how to determine when someone “received” a notice, which would have led to more legal fights. There were also situations where it wouldn’t be clear if someone actually received the notice. The law only applied to a specific type of notice, which could have caused confusion if someone knew about the order but not the details of it. Overall, it’s better that this law didn’t pass. The proposed law doesn’t have a clear process for determining when an order was received or who has to prove if it was received or not. It also raises concerns because the Florida Supreme Court has the exclusive authority to make rules about when to appeal a court decision, and the legislature might not have the power to change that. An amendment to F.S. §120.68(11) could be added to give agencies the power to fix their own mistakes in orders, like clerical errors or errors made by accident. It would also let agencies cancel a final order and make a new one if there were really bad circumstances that stopped someone from appealing on time, as long as it wasn’t the person’s fault. This change would make it clear that agencies can fix their orders in certain situations and wouldn’t mess with the rules made by the Florida Supreme Court. In both civil and administrative courts, it’s important for people to have a fair chance to appeal a decision if they didn’t have the opportunity to do so before. In civil cases, there’s a rule that allows for this, and we think a similar rule should be considered for administrative cases. This could help avoid any problems with changing appeal deadlines through new laws. This is important because the right to appeal is protected by the Florida Constitution, and courts can’t consider an appeal if it’s not filed on time. If you don’t get a court order in the mail or it’s sent to the wrong place, you might be able to ask the court to change its decision. You can do this if there was a mistake, you didn’t know about it, or you had a good reason for not responding on time. You might need to have a hearing to explain why you need the court to change its decision. In some legal cases, a rule called Rule 1.540 doesn’t apply. The rule says that every document filed in a case must be given to all parties involved. There are also laws and court cases that say administrative agencies have the power to fix mistakes in their decisions, even if the law doesn’t specifically give them that power. The Florida Supreme Court has recognized that the right to appeal an administrative order is implied by the Florida Constitution. Several attempts to change the time limit for appealing orders have not been successful, and a veto by the governor also stopped a potential change. The legislature can give power to administrative agencies to make and enforce rules. The Florida Supreme Court has the power to make rules for how courts operate. When a court order is “rendered,” it means a signed, written order is filed with the court clerk. There are specific time limits for filing appeals in different types of cases, but sometimes there can be exceptions to these time limits, like if there was a mistake or if someone was prevented from filing on time. The Uniform Rules of Procedure, which are part of the Florida Administrative Code, apply to all proceedings where a party’s interests are determined by the agency. This includes evidentiary hearings related to a specific law. The authors, Katherine E. Giddings and Michael J. Larson from Akerman LLP, acknowledge Lawrence E. Sellers from Holland & Knight LLP for his input on this topic. This column is submitted on behalf of the Appellate Practice Section.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/the-right-to-relief-untimely-notice-of-an-appealable-order/