Hunter W Carroll Circuit Judge Lisa Fritz Judicial Assistant GENERAL INFORMATION Office Information: Judge Lynn N Silvertooth Judicial Center 2002 Ringling Boulevard Sarasota, FL 34237 Courtroom: Judge Carroll is assigned courtroom 6-A Telephone number: 9418617946 Faxes: Please, do not fax Email: lfritz@jud12flcourtsorg Proposed orders only: divisione@jud12flcourtsorg Court s website: wwwjud12flcourtsorg Office hours: Daily from 8:30 am to 5 pm Closed from noon until 1 pm PLEASE READ IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ATTORNEY The Judge is required to apply the same rules to all parties, regardless of whether you have an attorney The Judge may not talk to you about your case outside of the courtroom, so please do not call to speak with the Judge The Court s Judicial Assistant can help you schedule a hearing in your case The Judicial Assistant, though, may not help you with your case or send information to the other party or attorney for you The Judicial Assistant may not give the Judge a message Additionally, please do not ask the Judicial Assistant for the outcome of a hearing or verify that an order has been signed; you may review the Clerk s website at wwwsarasotaclerkcom for details about your case Finally, please remember that whenever you send something to the Clerk for filing or provide a copy to the Judge, you must at the same time send an exact copy to all of the attorneys or parties COURT PREFERENCES AND REQUIREMENTS LOCAL RULES AND STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONALISM: Both the Local Rules for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit and the circuit s Standards of Professionalism are available on the Court s website under the Attorney Info tab as well as at wwwsarasotabarcom The Court expects all attorneys who appear to know and adhere to these requirements SCHEDULING HEARINGS: You must schedule hearings one hour in duration or less through the Judicial Automated Calendaring System (JACS) Please do not combine timeslots to Last updated 1/22/2018 Page 1 of 5 Judge Carroll (Division E)
obtain additional hearing time Please contact the Court s Judicial Assistant to schedule all hearings requiring more than one hour CANCELLING HEARINGS: You must cancel hearings using JACS whenever possible When the Court s Judicial Assistant has finalized the docket approximately five days in advance of the hearing JACS will not permit you to cancel the hearing In that situation, please call the Judicial Assistant to cancel a hearing In all events, you must immediately send notice of cancellation to all parties MAGISTRATE BAILEY: The following matters shall be scheduled before Magistrate Bailey, unless either side files a written objection: All motions directed to the pleadings, discovery, service of process, jurisdiction, and arbitration These motions may be scheduled through the JACS system In addition to the traditional matters heard by Magistrate Bailey, the parties may utilize Magistrate Bailey for any other matter to which the parties consent, including injunction hearings and summary judgment motions Injunctions and summary judgment motions must be specially set by stipulation by contacting Magistrate Bailey s assistant If a scheduling party has any question with regard to whether a certain motion should be scheduled before the Magistrate, the scheduling party should call or email Magistrate Bailey s assistant COURTESY COPIES: For most motions, the Court encourages electronic copies instead of paper copies be sent to the Court s Judicial Assistant For lengthy motions, though, the Court would appreciate a paper copy of the motion, the directly relevant summary judgment evidence (if applicable), and only those cases directly relevant The Court must receive all materials no later than five days prior to the hearing Please give opposing counsel and the Court the opportunity to be prepared to address your motion PROPOSED ORDERS AND ENVELOPES: The Court encourages all proposed orders be sent electronically in Word format to divisione@jud12flcourtsorg No paper, please, and do not use this email address for any other purpose Do not efile your proposed Order through the eportal under any circumstance The Court expects that you will only submit a proposed order when all attorneys or parties agree on the form If there is a disagreement on the form of the proposed order, or an attorney does not respond within a reasonable period of time to your request to review and approve the form, you may then send your proposed order with a concise statement identifying the disagreement and the steps you took to have the form agreed to The opposing attorney may submit at the same time an alternate proposed order Please do not email a directive such as hold this proposed order for x days for an objection to be lodged The Court s Judicial Assistant is not your personal calendaring service For readability purposes, the Court generally uses 14-point Times New Roman font with one-inch margins when drafting proposed Orders Importantly, please remember that when you email the proposed Order, you must immediately submit preaddressed envelopes with sufficient postage for all parties to receive a service copy Please assume the Court will add several pages when determining postage amount for any non-routine orders Your delay in sending the envelopes will delay the service of the order Absent exceptional circumstances, the Judicial Assistant will not scan and email service copies of orders (The Court is working with the Clerk to create an environment where Last updated 1/22/2018 Page 2 of 5 Judge Carroll (Division E)
the Court can sign, file, and serve orders electronically This is a high priority for the Court Unfortunately, the capability of existing resources is not sufficiently robust to accomplish this in a meaningful way) ORDERS UNDER ADVISEMENT: The Court attempts to rule from the bench where appropriate There are times, though, that the Court will take a matter under advisement In that case, the Court does its best to rule as quickly as possible under the then current circumstances Unless otherwise instructed during the hearing, for matters taken under advisement following a hearing please do not call to ask about the status of the order If three weeks have elapsed without a ruling, the movant may call the Judicial Assistant to advise that the matter has been under advisement for three weeks Please note, though, the three weeks begins upon the Court s receipt of the last post-hearing submission (eg, transcripts, supplemental briefs, or legal authorities) REQUIRED SERVICE ON THE COURT: Petitions and motions that by law must be served upon the Judge (eg, writs, appeals, recusal motions), must be either emailed to the Court s Judicial Assistant or hand delivered to the Court Deputy station on the 9th floor Additionally, please call the Judicial Assistant to advise her of the service SUMMARY JUDGMENT: Summary judgment hearings are like appellate oral argument Absent unusual circumstances, the Court generally will permit up to 30 minutes total for a summary judgment hearing TELEPHONE APPEARANCES: The Court allows phone appearances for non-evidentiary hearings fifteen (15) minutes or less in length The attorney must provide a toll-free phone number on JACS and on the Notice of Hearing The Court generally takes phone hearings last when multiple hearings are set Unless otherwise instructed, the Court will initiate the phone call but will not wait on hold for any extended time period The Court does not permit telephone appearances for evidentiary hearings, any foreclosure proceedings, UMC hearings, case management conferences, pretrial conferences, docket sounding, or lack of prosecution hearings The Court s phone system does not allow joining multiple lines together If more than one person will appear by phone, those individuals must arrange a conference bridge with a conference call provider The toll-free conference callin phone number and participant codes must be provided on the JACS system and the Notice of Hearing UNIFORM MOTION CALENDAR: The Court conducts UMC hearing most Wednesday mornings at 8:30 am UMC dates and the assigned judge may be found on the Court s website UMC motions must be non-evidentiary and 5 minutes or less in length Please do not schedule UMC hearings through JACS or the Judicial Assistant Instead, attorneys sign up as they arrive for the hearing The Court does not permit telephone appearances Attorneys must appropriately notice all UMC hearings and bring copies of the motion and notice to the hearing for the judge The Court does not permit mortgage foreclosure hearings on the UMC docket Please refer to Foreclosure Procedures below for details Last updated 1/22/2018 Page 3 of 5 Judge Carroll (Division E)
EMERGENCIES: True emergencies are rare Any motion requesting emergency hearing time must explain the emergency, the anticipated time needed, and, where appropriate, good faith efforts to resolve the matter without Court intervention The attorney or party filing the motion must (1) phone the Court s Judicial Assistant about the motion, and (2) hand deliver or email a copy to the Court s Judicial Assistant The Court will determine how to handle the request REHEARING OR RECONSIDERATION: Please do not set these motions for hearing Please send these motions to the Court with a cover letter The Court will determine whether to grant a hearing SETTING TRIALS AND TRIAL PROCEDURE CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCES: When a case is at issue and ready for trial, counsel must select a case management date from the Court s website, prepare an Order Setting Case Management Conference, and submit it to the Court for execution All Case Management Conferences must be set before the assigned civil division judge using the master calendar dates and approved civil case management form Attendance is mandatory unless excused by the Court PRETRIAL CONFERENCE: The Order Setting Case for Jury Trial contains a Pretrial Conference date If the parties submit a completed, joint Pretrial Conference Order to the Court at least three (3) business days prior to the Pretrial Conference, then the parties are excused from the Pretrial Conference Otherwise, personal appearance is required DOCKET SOUNDING: All counsel must appear in person at Docket Sounding Unless otherwise provided in a Court Order, at Docket Sounding, the plaintiff must provide a paper copy of the following items: (1) the operative pleadings; (2) a complete set of witness lists; (3) all unresolved motions; (4) proposed jury instructions, including any jury instructions proposed by a party but not agreed to by all; and (5) the Pretrial Conference Order The plaintiff must show all attorneys or parties the documents prior to being handed to the Court Following Docket Sounding, the Court will publish a trial lineup on the Court s website DAUBERT AND IN LIMINE MOTIONS: Unless the Court specifically agrees otherwise, all motions, including Daubert motions and in limine motions, must be resolved before Docket Sounding Please plan accordingly CONTINUANCES: All continuance motions must be in writing and signed by the client/party See Fla R Civ P 1460; Fla R Jud Admin 2545(e) BACKUP JUDGES: Civil Division A, C and E Judges often act as backup trial judges for each other Please notify the Court no later than Docket Sounding if a recusal issue would exist with either of the Division A or C judges SETTLEMENTS OCCURRING BETWEEN THE PRETRIAL CONFERENCE AND TRIAL: If the parties settle the case between the Pretrial Conference and Trial, the parties must immediately file with the Clerk via the eportal a Notice of Settlement and must at the same time Last updated 1/22/2018 Page 4 of 5 Judge Carroll (Division E)
email a copy of the Notice of Settlement to the following email address: divisione@jud12flcourtsorg If the settlement occurs after the Court has posted a trial lineup, the settlement parties must also immediately contact the attorneys next in order on the trial lineup This obligation remains even if the settlement occurs over a weekend or a holiday NEW TRIAL MOTIONS: Please do not set these motions for hearing Please send these motions to the Court with a cover letter The Court will determine whether to grant a hearing FORECLOSURE MATTERS NO TELEPHONE APPEARANCES You may not appear by telephone and must appear in person See Administrative Order 2009-21 SCHEDULING HEARING TIME IN RESIDENTIAL FORECLOSURE MATTERS: All residential mortgage foreclosures must be set using JACS and placed onto either the Foreclosure Contested docket or Foreclosure Uncontested docket Residential Mortgage Foreclosure UMC hearing dates are listed on the foreclosure website The division Judges hear UMC hearing on the designated Residential Mortgage Foreclosure UMC calendar dates only Important note: Motions for cases that are filed under the Clerk of Circuit Court s Civil Cover Sheet as a Homestead or Non-Homestead Residential Foreclosure must be scheduled before the Division Judge Please visit the foreclosure portion of the Court s website prior to schedule any foreclosure hearing to ensure that you have reviewed and complied with the administrative orders and mandatory requirements COMMERCIAL and REAL PROPERTY FORECLOSURES are to be scheduled on the assigned civil judge's regular JACS calendar (divisions A, C, & E) See also: http://wwwjud12flcourtsorg/programsservices/foreclosurehome/sarasotaforeclosureinformat ionaspx Hearings scheduled on the wrong docket may be cancelled without notice REASSIGNMENT OF CIVIL TRUST LITIGATION MATTERS TO PROBATE JUDGE All pre-trial matters and adversary proceedings in Civil Trust Litigation or other matters that either originated in the Probate/Guardianship division or are substantially related to Probate and Guardianship matters requiring resolution by trial, shall be reassigned to the presiding Probate/Guardianship Division Judge, with the exception of those motions that are required to be heard by the Civil Magistrate pursuant to these requirements and consistent with existing Administrative Orders Last updated 1/22/2018 Page 5 of 5 Judge Carroll (Division E)