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The district courts of appeal (DCAs) are the
intermediate appellate court An intermediate appellate court is an appellate court that is not the court of last resort A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last ...
s of the
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
state court system. There are currently five DCAs: *The First District Court of Appeal is headquartered in
Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
*The Second District Court of Appeal is headquartered in Lakeland and has a branch in
Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
*The Third District Court of Appeal is headquartered in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
*The Fourth District Court of Appeal is headquartered in
West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
*The Fifth District Court of Appeal is headquartered in
Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...
On January 1, 2023, there will be a new Sixth District Court of Appeal.


History

The district courts of appeal were created by the
Florida Legislature The Florida Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Cons ...
in 1957 to provide an intermediate level of
appellate review In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...
between the
trial court A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually made by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). Mos ...
s (the county courts and circuit courts) and the
Florida Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven members: the chief justice and six justices. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geographic diversity, and one ...
. This was done, as in other parts of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, to relieve the state supreme court of the pressure of its ever-increasing appellate docket; the lobbying effort by Florida Supreme Court Justice Elwyn Thomas played a large role in the DCAs' creation. Three DCAs were initially created, with the Third District Court of Appeal was given jurisdiction over cases arising from Dade and Monroe counties. Later, the Fourth and Fifth District Courts of Appeal were created. The existence of the DCAs was provided for in the
Florida Constitution The Constitution of the State of Florida is the document that establishes and describes the powers, duties, structure, and function of the government of the U.S. state of Florida, and establishes the basic law of the state. The current Constitu ...
, which now requires the legislature to divide the state into appellate court districts, providing each with a DCA. At the time, Florida was the second state to have district courts of appeal, as California had created its own district courts of appeal in 1904. However, in 1966, California dropped the word "district" from the names of the
California Courts of Appeal The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts.
, thus leaving Florida as the sole state with DCAs. The DCAs were originally intended to serve as the final appellate courts for the vast majority of cases. During the 1960s, the Florida Supreme Court decided several cases which had the cumulative effect of turning the DCAs into non-final "way-stations in the appellate process." Chief Justice Arthur J. England Jr. played a major role in bringing about the 1980 constitutional amendment which effectively overruled those cases and again narrowed the state supreme court's jurisdiction "to resolve its uncontrollable caseload." Available through
HeinOnline HeinOnline (HOL) is a commercial internet database service launched in 2000 by William S. Hein & Co., Inc. (WSH Co), a Buffalo, New York publisher specializing in legal materials. The company began in Buffalo, New York, in 1961 and is currently b ...
.


Judges

District court of appeal
judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
s, like Florida Supreme Court justices, are first recommended by the Florida Judicial Nominating Commission. They are then appointed by the
governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...
, but have
retention election A judicial retention election (or retention referendum) is a periodic process in some jurisdictions whereby a judge is subject to a referendum held at the same time as a general election. The judge is removed from office if a majority of votes are ...
s every six years, in which voters are asked on the ballot to vote whether the judge should be retained in office. (Retention rates are very high). DCAs have different numbers of judges – currently ranging from 11 to 15 - based on the docket size.


Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the DCAs is set forth in Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.030. Appeals are usually heard by a three-judge panel. Occasionally a DCA will hold an ''
en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller ...
'' hearing, in which all the judges participate. The decisions of the district courts of appeal represent the law of Florida unless and until they are overruled by the Florida Supreme Court. Stanfill v. State, 384 So.2d 141, 143 (Fla. 1980). Thus, in the absence of interdistrict conflict, district court decisions bind all Florida trial courts. Weiman v. McHaffie, 470 So.2d 682, 684 (Fla. 1985).''See'' Pardo v. State, 596 So. 2d 665 (Fla. 1992). In the event of a conflict between the decisions of different district courts of appeal, county and circuit courts must adhere to the case law of their own district court of appeal. District courts of appeal may recede from certain case law and precedent in subsequent decisions, or the Supreme Court may override a district court's precedent in favor of conflicting case law from another district. Because the Florida Supreme Court has predominantly
discretionary jurisdiction Discretionary jurisdiction is a circumstance where a court has the power to decide whether to hear a particular case brought before it. Most courts have no such power, and must entertain any case properly filed, so long as the court has subject mat ...
(i.e., can choose which cases it wants to hear), the DCAs provide the final word on the vast majority of cases appealed in the State of Florida. Cases that are affirmed without comment by the district courts cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court, even as a request for discretionary review. Such a case may be reviewed by the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
pursuant to a petition for writ of certiorari.See, e.g., Ibanez v. Florida Department of Professional Regulation, 512 U.S. 136 (1994), in which review had been denied without comment by the Florida First District Court of Appeal. 621 So. 2d 435 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993). Cases involving the
death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
are heard directly and automatically by the Florida Supreme Court, bypassing the district courts of appeal.


See also

*
Judiciary of Florida The Florida State Courts System is the unified state court system of Florida. Courts The Florida State Courts System consists of: * The Florida State Supreme Court; * Five District Courts of Appeal, which are the state's intermediate appella ...


References


External links


Website of the Florida District Courts of AppealFlorida First District Court of Appeal WebsiteFlorida Second District Court of Appeal WebsiteFlorida Third District Court of Appeal WebsiteFlorida Fourth District Court of Appeal WebsiteFlorida Fifth District Court of Appeal WebsiteFlorida Sixth District Court of Appeal WebpageFlorida Rules of Appellate Procedure
{{State Intermediate Appellate Courts Florida appellate courts State appellate courts of the United States 1957 establishments in Florida Courts and tribunals established in 1957