The Legal System in Florida has only Two jurisdictions

---

 Hey gang. This is Alfred Einstein coming to you today from the beautiful pockets of specialized knowledge studios. Today, we're going to talk about Florida courts jurisdictions. What's the difference between Florida courts. Now you're going to learn here in Florida. We call them county and county court and circuit court. Uh, and other states like New York. I know you guys have superior court, but everybody's going to have in each and every state, they're going to have divisions where they deal with low-level claims and divisions, where they deal with high level claims, as well as a breakdown. And I'm going to get into it here. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Okay. I'm going to move over here. There are only two jurisdictions in Florida county court. There's four county court branches and just Broward county alone. I know in Dade county, I think there's six. There's generally one circuit courthouse in every county in the state. And it's usually located within the county seat. So in Broward county, the county seat is Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is where the courthouse is located as well as the federal courthouse and in Miami Dade, Miami proper is the county seat. So that's where the courthouse is. The main, the main circuit courthouse. The jurisdictions are determined by the type of claim and the size of the claim. And I think I have more about that right here. Okay. County court, like I said, every state is a little bit different and Florida just raised their values or mounts that could be accepted in certain courts just a couple of years ago. So county court is just civil cases and those are under $30,000. In other words, the claim amount is under 30,000, not including interest 30,000 as a principal claim amount. You can Sue and county court and there's advantages and disadvantages for all the courts. And I'm gonna talk about those quick and absurd in a second. The second division that's in county court is called small claims. Those deal with claims under 8,000. Now it used to be 5,000, but it changed when county court went from 20 to 30. So those are the jurisdictional values that will determine what court you need to be in. And like I said, every state has the same breakup. You might have three different courts where three different amounts, but you have them broke up because it's not a wise use of time to have small claims that are under 8,000 to be heard by circuit court judges. That's just not smart. Every state is smarter than that, except for probably California. Take a shot at the appointed. Okay. Uh, other features of county court in county court, it's up to the judge, whether or not you can represent yourself, or if you need to have an attorney. The newer judges tends to tend to sit on the county bench because the cases are less complicated. They don't have to be extremely experienced to be able to figure this out. But the fact is most judges are going to use their life experience when they determine an innocent or guilty, uh, order. So in any event, hearings are also easier to schedule in county court because there's less of a grind. There's less files. Most of the files are going to be in circuit court. So now we have the second division that's in county court and that's a small claims division. Individuals can definitely represent themselves in small claims. The rules of law and rules of the court are relaxed and the judge can help the parties and they do. And there's nothing. There's nothing like being a plaintiff and having the judge help the defendant. It's like, come on minute. It doesn't bode well for my case, you're helping them already. But anyways, uh, small claims always have pre-taught pretrial conference dates that are mandatory for each the plaintiff and the defendant to show up at, if you're a plaintiff and the defendant doesn't show up, you automatically get your judgment. If your defendant and the plaintiff doesn't show up, you automatically get the case dismissed. But I believe it's without prejudice so they can file again. But, um, anyways, so the initial court dates are always packed because they figured out, okay, there's 150 people. We can fit in the courtroom. Let's get 160 people to attend. This. That's the way those pretrial conferences are at least here in Florida. Okay? Circuit court. If you're in circuit court, attorneys must represent all the parties in circuit court. There's no messing around here. There's no relaxed rules. The judge ain't gonna help anybody. And this is also the division where most other important cases are heard. There are several divisions here in circuit court, but it's broke up into some of the very, very, very tough ones. We have the criminal division, which is where you go. If you're coming, if you commit a crime, doesn't matter what size crime. There's no small claims for criminal. You go right to the circuit court and it's the criminal division family law that's divorces. So you have to a family law judges who you're going to see there, but they are going to be in the circuit division, probate and guardianship. That re that has to do with somebody that's passed away or someone that needs a guardian, someone to help them make decisions in their life, juvenile court, which is interesting. I just learned this while I was putting this video together, that that's also falls under the circuit court jurisdiction. Also any appeals of county court decisions go through circuit court. And of course the civil division, which is where foreclosures and all sorts of judicial actions that are not criminal. That's where they reside is in circuit court. In the civil division. Other features of circuit court hearing is can take to set. Most judges, calendars are stuffed. And if you would speak to anybody in the legal profession, in your county, it's probably the same in your state that every single circuit court judge has got a stuffed docket. In other words, they got cases. They want to get rid of them. They would prefer you settle, but the calendars are stuffed because there's not enough judges, there's motion, calendar available. So you can get some quick, you know, little insignificant items within your lawsuit, settled without having, without having to have a full-blown hearing, you can do it on motion calendar, but motion calendar, the way judges run. It are a little different. Each judge has a little bit different. So you have to find out where each rules are, but they are available in circuit court. Most of the judges are very experienced because this is the highest rung in a ladder a judge can get unless they go to the appeals court. So most judges are satisfied with their career ending here. And there's some very good judges in Broward county. And again, there are some terrible judges, like for example, there used to be a judge and I'm not gonna name any names, but he came from the criminal division and he was sitting on civil cases. He didn't know civil law. So he, he made a, made a ruling based on his knowledge and experience. And that was in criminal law. So he made a lot of mistakes. A lot of his, a lot of his rulings got set aside and overturned, but that wasn't until he caused a lot of damage to a lot of people, not going to mention his name, I really should, but I'm not going to, he's retired a long time. Okay. So that said, that's a differences between the jurisdictions. There's a doggy. What is bye-bye again? This is Alfred Einstein of pockets of specialized knowledge. I hope this gave you a little bit of inner understanding about the different divisions in Florida. I have a website up it's WW dot P O F S k.com. A lot easier than writing out the whole name. Just to get just the letters. I got a lot of free information there visited if you like, I got lots of video stuff, but in the meantime, don't forget to attend your real estate investor meetings. And also remember, you don't know what you don't know until next time. It was great speaking to you. I'll see you again.