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House Bill 1753er

ENROLLED 1997 Legislature HB 1753, First Engrossed 1 2 An act relating to the judiciary; amending s. 3 26.031, F.S.; increasing the number of judges 4 in specified judicial circuits; amending s. 5 34.022, F.S.; increasing the number of judges 6 in specified county courts; providing an 7 effective date. 8 9 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 10 11 Section 1. Section 26.031, Florida Statutes, 1996 12 Supplement, is amended to read: 13 26.031 Judicial circuits; number of judges.--The 14 number of circuit judges in each circuit shall be as follows: 15 16 JUDICIAL CIRCUIT TOTAL 17 (1) First...........................................19 18 (2) Second........................................1211 19 (3) Third........................................... 5 20 (4) Fourth........................................2928 21 (5) Fifth.........................................2018 22 (6) Sixth...........................................37 23 (7) Seventh.......................................2120 24 (8) Eighth..........................................10 25 (9) Ninth.........................................3332 26 (10) Tenth..........................................18 27 (11) Eleventh.......................................70 28 (12) Twelfth........................................17 29 (13) Thirteenth.....................................33 30 (14) Fourteenth......................................9 31 (15) Fifteenth......................................31 1 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. ENROLLED 1997 Legislature HB 1753, First Engrossed 1 (16) Sixteenth...................................... 4 2 (17) Seventeenth..................................4645 3 (18) Eighteenth.....................................21 4 (19) Nineteenth.....................................13 5 (20) Twentieth......................................20 6 Section 2. Section 34.022, Florida Statutes, 1996 7 Supplement, is amended to read: 8 34.022 Number of county court judges for each 9 county.--The number of county court judges in each county 10 shall be as follows: 11 12 COUNTY TOTAL 13 (1) Alachua..........................................5 14 (2) Baker............................................1 15 (3) Bay..............................................3 16 (4) Bradford.........................................1 17 (5) Brevard..........................................7 18 (6) Broward.......................................2524 19 (7) Calhoun..........................................1 20 (8) Charlotte........................................2 21 (9) Citrus...........................................1 22 (10) Clay............................................2 23 (11) Collier.........................................3 24 (12) Columbia........................................1 25 (13) Dade.........................................4140 26 (14) DeSoto..........................................1 27 (15) Dixie...........................................1 28 (16) Duval..........................................13 29 (17) Escambia........................................5 30 (18) Flagler.........................................1 31 (19) Franklin........................................1 2 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. ENROLLED 1997 Legislature HB 1753, First Engrossed 1 (20) Gadsden.........................................1 2 (21) Gilchrist.......................................1 3 (22) Glades..........................................1 4 (23) Gulf............................................1 5 (24) Hamilton........................................1 6 (25) Hardee..........................................1 7 (26) Hendry..........................................1 8 (27) Hernando........................................1 9 (28) Highlands.......................................1 10 (29) Hillsborough...................................13 11 (30) Holmes..........................................1 12 (31) Indian River....................................2 13 (32) Jackson.........................................1 14 (33) Jefferson.......................................1 15 (34) Lafayette.......................................1 16 (35) Lake............................................2 17 (36) Lee.............................................6 18 (37) Leon............................................4 19 (38) Levy............................................1 20 (39) Liberty.........................................1 21 (40) Madison.........................................1 22 (41) Manatee.........................................3 23 (42) Marion..........................................3 24 (43) Martin..........................................2 25 (44) Monroe..........................................4 26 (45) Nassau..........................................1 27 (46) Okaloosa........................................2 28 (47) Okeechobee......................................1 29 (48) Orange.......................................1413 30 (49) Osceola.........................................3 31 (50) Palm Beach.....................................17 3 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. ENROLLED 1997 Legislature HB 1753, First Engrossed 1 (51) Pasco...........................................3 2 (52) Pinellas.......................................13 3 (53) Polk............................................6 4 (54) Putnam..........................................1 5 (55) St. Johns.......................................2 6 (56) St. Lucie.......................................3 7 (57) Santa Rosa......................................2 8 (58) Sarasota........................................4 9 (59) Seminole........................................5 10 (60) Sumter..........................................1 11 (61) Suwannee........................................1 12 (62) Taylor..........................................1 13 (63) Union...........................................1 14 (64) Volusia.........................................9 15 (65) Wakulla.........................................1 16 (66) Walton..........................................1 17 (67) Washington......................................1 18 Section 3. The Office of Program Policy and 19 Governmental Accountability is directed to study, through its 20 staff or by contract with a vendor, the judicial efficiency 21 and cost effectiveness of Florida's two-tiered trial court 22 system and the jurisdictional distinctions between county and 23 circuit courts. Alternatives, such as full - or part-time 24 magistrates for small claims and civil traffic infractions, 25 changes in jurisdiction, and a unified trial court system, 26 should be included in the study. This study should also 27 include an examination of the state case reporting system 28 currently used by the Florida Supreme Court to determine 29 judicial workload. 30 (2) The study must be completed and submitted to the 31 President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of 4 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. ENROLLED 1997 Legislature HB 1753, First Engrossed 1 Representatives, the Chief Justice, and the Governor no later 2 than January 31, 1998. 3 Section 4. The judges filling new offices created by 4 this act shall be appointed by the Governor and shall take 5 office on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January 6 1998. 7 Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 of this act shall take 8 effect on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January 9 1998, and all remaining sections shall take effect upon 10 becoming a law. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 5