The Florida Supreme Court recently issued its Second Corrected Opinion adopting a new Rule of Judicial Administration and amending various rules of procedure to provide for service of pleadings and papers by e-mail. The opinion, which can be found here, creates Rule of Judicial Administration 2.516, which is modeled after Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.080, but provides that all documents required or permitted to be served on another party must be served by e-mail. Rule 2.516 requires a lawyer, upon appearing in a proceeding, to designate a primary e-mail address for receiving service. The new Rule provides limited exceptions for lawyers who can demonstrate that they do not have an e-mail account and lack access to the internet and for pro se litigants.
There is no required format for the designation of e-mail addresses, but counsel should begin filing designations in all of their cases along the lines of the following:
[CASE CAPTION]
DESIGNATION OF E-MAIL ADDRESSES PURSUANT TO FLA. R. JUD. ADMIN. 2.516
[Attorney’s Name], as attorney for [Party’s Name], pursuant to Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.516, hereby designates the following e-mail address(es) for the purpose of service of all documents required to be served pursuant to Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.516 in this action.
Primary E-mail Address: attorney@lawfirm.com
Secondary E-mail Address(es): assistant@lawfirm.com and service@lawfirm.com
____________________
[Attorney’s Name]
[Florida Bar Number]
[Law Firm’s Name]
[Street Address]
[City, State, Zip]
[Telephone Number]
[Fax Number]
Attorneys for [Party’s Name]
Certificate of Service
The document being served must be attached to the e-mail in pdf format and service by e-mail will be deemed complete when the e-mail has been sent. The subject line of the e-mail must contain the words “SERVICE OF COURT DOCUMENT” in all capital letters and the case number. The body of the e-mail must identify the court in which the proceeding is pending, the case number, the name of the initial party on each side, the title of the document being served, and the name and telephone number of the sender. The e-mail should look like this:
To: attorney@opposingcounsel.com; assistant@opposingcounsel.com; service@opposingcounsel.com
From: attorney@lawfirm.com
Attachment: pleading.pdf
Subject: SERVICE OF COURT DOCUMENT – Case No. 12-CA-12345
______________________
Attached is Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Responses to Discovery Requests in ABC Corp., et al. v. XYZ LLC, et al., 15th Circuit Court (Palm Beach County) Case No. 12-CA-12345. Please feel free to call me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX.
[Attorney’s Name]
The e-mail and attachment may not exceed 5 megabtyes. E-mails with attachments that exceed 5 megabytes must be divided into separate smaller e-mails and labeled sequentially in the subject line (i.e 1 of 5, 2 of 5, etc.).
Service by e-mail is mandatory in cases pending and filed in the civil, probate, small claims, and family law divisions of trial courts, as well as appellate courts, on and after September 1, 2012. While attorneys practicing in the criminal, traffic and juvenile divisions of the trial court may also choose to serve documents by e-mail after that date, they are not required to do so until October 1, 2013.
As a result of the implementation of Rule 2.516, numerous procedural rules, including Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.080, 1.170(g), 1.351(b), 1.410(c), 1.440(c), 1.442(c)(2), 1.510(c) and 1.630(d), have been amdended. With the date for implementation of Rule 2.516 in certain types of cases approaching, attorneys should begin preparing and filing their Designations and implementing systems to ensure proper service of pleadings and compliance with Rule 2.516.
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David Greene is a partner with the law firm of Fox Rothschild LLP. David represents clients in a variety of commercial litigation matters in State and Federal Courts throughout Florida. David can be contacted at (561) 804-4441 or dgreene@foxrothschild.com.