Board endorses six sets of procedural rules.

The Board of Governors has endorsed six sets of procedural rule amendments and forwarded a seventh without comment to the Supreme Court.

Under revised rule procedures, the rule committees now make recommendations every other year to update their respective rules, with the submissions being staggered over two years.

The board at its December meeting handled five regular rule requests, plus an emergency rule amendment from the Rules of Judicial Administration Committee.

The board took no action on rule amendments proposed by the Workers' Compensation Rules Committee. Bar President Miles McGrane noted that the Division of Administrative Hearings has contended that under revised state laws, the committee and the Supreme Court no longer have jurisdiction to make procedural rules for workers' compensation cases and that DOAH now has exclusive authority to implement rules.

Consequently, McGrane said the board would not review those rules, but would merely pass them along to the court, which will ultimately decide the issue.

The board does not have the authority to alter the recommendations from the committees, but it does make its own suggestions that the court adopt, reject, or modify the committees' proposals.

In December, the board added its endorsement to all of the committees' recommended amendments. Here's a quick look at what is being proposed:

The Rules of Judicial Administration Committee presented an amendment to the judicial disqualification rule, Rule 2.160, in order to define the word "immediately." The rule currently says a judge shall rule immediately on a disqualification motion and the amendment, drafted in response to a request from the Supreme Court, says that ruling in no case shall come more than 30 days after the motion is filed.

The Criminal Procedure Rules Committee approved several changes, many based on recent laws or court rulings. An amendment to Rule 3.710 would provide a court order that a comprehensive presentence investigation report be placed on the record when a defendant refuses to present mitigating evidence in a death penalty case. That conforms to Muhammad v. State, 782 So. 2d 343 (Fla. 2001).

New Rule 3.575 was proposed to create a procedure for interviewing jurors after a conviction pursuant to Defrancisco v. State, 830 So. 2d 131 (Fla. 2d DCA) and Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-3.5(d)(4).

The committee also proposed adding Rule 3.150(c) to require a judge to inquire when two or more defendants are represented by the same lawyer or law firm and to advise the defendants they are entitled to effective representation of counsel, including separate lawyers.

The Code and Rules of Evidence Committee has a different function from other rules committees, because the law of evidence is established by the legislature rather than by the Supreme Court. The committee acts to codify the rules to comply with recently passed statutes.

This year's changes included extending the sexual assault counselor-victim privilege to trained volunteers at crisis centers, creating a business records certification procedure so the records custodian does not have to appear at trial, and specifying that an objection does not have to be made at trial to preserve an evidentiary issue for appeal when the judge made a pretrial ruling on that issue.

The most significant change proposed by the Juvenile Court Rules Committee, according to Chair Jennifer Parker, is that juveniles be given a meaningful opportunity to meet with a lawyer before they waive the right to counsel. Also, the waiver must be submitted in writing and in the presence of a parent or guardian. Both of those recommendations are in accordance with recommendations of the Bar's Commission on the Legal Needs of Children.

Other juvenile rule changes include a new Rule 8.257 on the use of general masters in dependency proceedings to comply with the Supreme Court's request in Amendments to Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure, 827 So. 2d 219 (Fla. 2002).

An amendment to Rule 8.400 clarifies the procedure for amending a case plan while a change to Rule 8.410(c) changes the case plan goal from reunification to permanency for the child, to conform with state law.

Several other amendments were also made to conform the rules with recent changes to F.S. Chapter 39.

The Traffic Court Rules Committee suggested two changes. One was editorial to add titles to the major rule subdivisions. The second made a change to Rule 6.292 on criminal offenses to conform it with Rule 6.560 on the effect of a withheld adjudication in traffic infractions.

The Appellate Court Rules Committee recommended changes to Rule 9.020 to provide that subdivision (h) on tolling rendition applies to trial orders only. The committee also proposed a new subdivision (i) to govern the rendition of appellate orders and the interaction of motions under Rules 9.330 and 9.331 and the finality of appellate orders.

Another proposed amendment is to Rule 9.130 to restore the right of interlocutory appeals in cases covered by the Bert Harris Act, F.S. 70.001(6)(a). The change allows an interlocutory review of a ruling that a property has been inordinately burdened. Subdivision (a)(5) would also be changed to allow appeals from orders on motions for relief from judgment filed under Juvenile Procedure Rule 8.270.

The committee also recommended changing Rule 9.370 to comply with the request of the Supreme Court in Amendments to Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure, 827 So. 2d 888 (Fla. 2002, to require an amicus to get leave of the court before filing an amicus brief. The change also provides that getting that leave is the only way to file those briefs, and the motion seeking leave must specify whether the parties agree to the filing.

Another change would be to Rule 9.180 which would allow a filing of a notice of appeal if a judge of compensation claims fails to enter written findings despite a timely request. It also provides that the district court will relinquish jurisdiction with the entry of written findings.

All of the amendments will now be submitted to the Supreme Court for its review. Copies of all the proposed amendments can be found at the Bar's Web site, www.flabar.org.