Florida Legal Research: Judicial Branch

Very little of the substantive material produced by Florida's courts is available for free online.  Most legal researchers are familiar with techniques for locating judicial opinions, whether using subscription databases or hardcopy reporters.  Listed below are ways of accessing judicial opinions other than via subscription databases, as well as some of the other materials that may be of interest.

Florida Court Websites: http://www.flcourts.org/

Each court in the State maintains its own website, with slight differences in the types of information available and the organization of the site.  The link provided above will give information about the courts as a whole, as well as linking to the various individual courts.  Each site will offer contact information.  Opinions from the Florida Supreme Court and the district courts are available at the individual sites.  Oral argument videos can also be acquired from the court sites.

Florida Rules of Court Procedure: Available at Florida Bar website

The Florida Bar provides a page with access to the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure, Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, and other specific court procedures (such as those applying to probate cases).

Florida Law Weekly: http://www.floridalawweekly.com/flwonline/

Though it requires a subscription, the Florida Law Weekly site may offer a less expensive alternative to the larger subscription databases for accessing opinions by Florida courts.  Florida Law Weekly covers Florida Supreme Court and District Courts of Appeal opinions.  The FLW Supplement provides Circuit and County Court Opinions, and the Federal edition offers opinions from federal courts from within the State.