April 19, 2021
The Florida Courts released their 2020 Annual Report on State of Florida Courts this February. As part of a new blog series, we'll be discussing some of these changes and how they affect our clients.
The good news is that all the counties we cover are maintaining Clearance Rates above 90%. This means that very few probates aren't getting completed in a year or less.
In legal proceedings, the clearance rate is calculated by dividing the number of cases that are dispositioned by the total number of cases that are filed. This indication allows various groups to measure this variable to infer on the measure of crimes solved by the court. The clearance rate portrays the court’s ability to balance their Filings and Incoming Filings. For reference, a clearance rate of 100% indicates the court is disposing as many cases as they are receiving.
In the State of Florida there were 132,284 Filings in the Probate Court system for the Fiscal Year 2019-2020. Out of these filings, 126,425 were Dispositioned for the Fiscal Year 2019-2020, leaving the Total Clearance Rate for the State of Florida Probate Courts at 95.57%.
Circuit Courts refer to the court systems delegated to each grouping of counties. The concept of circuit courts requires judges to travel to different locations to ensure wider visibility and understanding of cases within the region. Being located in Central Florida allows us to cover various jurisdictions. Although we cover all of Florida, the 5 relevant Circuit Courts we most commonly deal with are, Circuit 7, 9, 10, 17, and 18. The statistics indicated for each circuit cover the Clearance Rates for the Fiscal Year 2019-2020.
Circuit 7
- Filings = 6,599
- Dispositions = 6,515
- Clearance Rate = 98.7%
- Probate Cases = 93.4% Clearance Rate (FY18-19)
- Decreased from 94.6% FY17-18
Circuit 9
- Filings = 6,869
- Dispositions = 6,684
- Clearance Rate Total = 97.3% (6th in the State of FL)
- Probate Cases = 115.4% Clearance Rate (FY18-19)
- Decreased from 160.1% FY17-18
Circuit 10
- Filings = 6,223
- Dispositions = 6,390
- Total Clearance Rate = 102.7%
- Probate Cases = 93.8% Clearance Rate (FY18-19)
- Decreased from 97.6% FY17-18
Circuit 17
- Filings = 10,980
- Dispositions = 12,281
- Total Clearance Rate = 111.8% (1st in the State of FL)
- Probate Cases = 103.4% Clearance Rate (FY18-19)
- Decreased from 104.2% FY17-18
Circuit 18
- Filings = 5,513
- Dispositions = 4,978
- Total Clearance Rate = 90.3%
- Probate Cases = 94.1% Clearance Rate (FY18-19)
- Increased from 77.8% FY17-18