Requirements & Information

All attorneys should follow the Twelfth Circuit Standards of Professionalism.

Magistrate Caskey hears civil matters referred by the presiding Circuit Judges upon the consent of parties in Civil Divisions B and D. At the time of scheduling your hearing on the Magistrate’s  Calendar, you must indicate whether the Court has entered an Order of Referral. The attorney or party scheduling the hearing is responsible to provide the Order of Referral to the assigned Circuit Court Judge to be signed and filed in the case docket prior to the hearing. Failure to obtain a signed Order of Referral for a case scheduled on the Magistrate’s Calendar 10 days prior to the hearing scheduled will result in the hearing being cancelled by the Magistrate’s Assistant.

In instances where a Judge has been recused from a case assigned to their division, it shall remain with the original General Magistrate. However, all subsequent reviews of the Magistrate’s Reports and Recommendations will be completed by the newly assigned Judge.

Motions to be scheduled: All discovery motions, including but not limited to motions to compel; motions for protective order; objections to non-party subpoenas; scheduling or conditions for depositions, certified medical examinations, entry on property for inspection.

Ex-Parte motions must be directed to the assigned Judge. Everything the Magistrate does is on the record and a hearing is required. All hearings are recorded and captured for the Digital Recording Department and a digital copy of the hearing may be obtained upon request/payment sent to that department.

All Civil hearings are held on the Zoom platform. Magistrate Caskey “hosts” the Zoom conference so there is no need to set up your own Zoom meeting. Please visit Magistrate Caskey’s Zoom information page to find the zoom meeting information. All Notices of Hearing must include the correct Zoom Meeting ID number, password and audio only access number. All parties must be noticed and listed on the notice with email address/mailing address that was used for service. These are mandatory requirements and failure to include this information may lead to the cancellation or rescheduling of the hearing.

If a party seeks an exception to the general rule that all civil hearings will be conducted via Zoom, that party must file a written motion requesting same, setting forth the specific reasons why it is believed that the hearing should be conducted in person. Please submit requests well in advance of the hearing that is scheduled so there is ample time for arrangements to be made.

All civil hearings of 30 minutes or less in duration can be scheduled by using Judicial Automated Calendaring System (JACS). If one hour or more is needed, please contact the Magistrate’s Assistant.

All parties shall reserve sufficient time for their matters to be heard by the Magistrate. If sufficient time is not reserved, and the parties have not presented all of their evidence and arguments to Magistrate for consideration when the scheduled hearing time expires, Magistrate Caskey may, at his discretion:

• continue the matter to another date and time to allow the parties the opportunity to present additional evidence and argument, or
• conclude the hearing and render his recommendation to the Court based on the evidence and argument presented by the parties. The Magistrate strictly adheres to this provision.

Please provide all hearing paperwork to Magistrate's Division email 10 days prior to the hearing. This email account is solely for submission of documents, not for communications with the Magistrate’s office. Any emails sent for communication purposes to the Magistrate’s Division email will not be read, considered, responded to, or filed. For communications with the Magistrate’s office, please contact the Magistrate Assistant via phone or email.  Hearing paperwork may include:

• The motion to be heard and any relevant court filings to which the parties may refer during the hearing.
• The Order of Referral for the particular motion/issue to be heard.
• Notice of Hearing for the particular motion/issue to be heard.
• Notice of related cases/case law

Please submit all hearing materials by email in PDF format or hard copies sent to the Magistrate’s office.

Any proposed report/recommendation shall be submitted as an email attachment in a format compatible with Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx format) – do not send in PDF format or Drop Box. 

Once a motion is scheduled, subsequent motions may not be added or cross-noticed without prior approval of the original scheduling attorney and then the Magistrate.

If a hearing needs to be cancelled, please file a Notice of Cancellation, send a copy of the Notice of Cancellation to the Magistrate’s Assistant and cancel the hearing through JACS. If unable to cancel through JACS, please contact the Magistrate’s Assistant. All parties must be notified of the cancellation. Please inform the Magistrate’s office as soon as possible of a cancellation as the hearing time may be able to be utilized for another case.

There are no set criteria as to emergency hearings and the Magistrate’s assistant can only give out emergency hearing time on the Magistrate’s directions. All motions requesting emergency or expedited hearing time should be emailed or delivered to the Magistrate’s office with an attached cover letter that includes the amount of hearing time requested. The Magistrate will then review the motion to determine whether an expedited or emergency hearing is warranted.

Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.490(i) provides, “The parties may file exceptions to the report within 10 days after it is served. Any party may file cross-exceptions within 5 days of the service of the exceptions.” If a party files exceptions or cross-exceptions, the party shall file the original with the Clerk and provide copies to the Magistrate’s Office as well as the assigned Judge. The Judge then issues an Order directing that, within a designated time, the excepting party shall file a transcript of the hearing before the Magistrate and set a hearing on the exceptions on the Judge’s calendar. Failure to adhere to the Judge’s Order may result in the Judge striking the party’s exceptions and adopting the Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation without further hearing. If no exceptions are filed, there will be an Order issued adopting the Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation that was filed and previously served on the parties.

If an interpreter is needed, you must provide one at your own expense, or arrange to have one provided by the Twelfth Judicial Circuit. The Twelfth Judicial Circuit provides spoken language court interpreters to limited-English-proficient persons in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, section 90.606, Florida Statutes, and Rule 2.560, Florida Rules of Judicial Administration. If you require the assistance of an interpreter, please submit your request using the Interpreter Request Form or please call (941) 749-3659. Please submit your request as early as possible, requests made with less than 5 business days’ notice may not be accommodated.

El Duodécimo Circuito Judicial provee intérpretes judiciales de la lengua hablada a personas con dominio limitado del inglés de acuerdo con el Título VI de la Ley de Derechos Civiles de 1964, la sección 90.606, los Estatutos de la Florida y la Regla 2.560 de las Reglas de Administración Judicial de la Florida. Si requiere la ayuda de un intérprete, por favor utilice la Solicitud de Interprete o llame al (941) 749-3659. Por favor, envíe su solicitud lo antes posible, las solicitudes hechas con menos de 5 días hábiles no pueden ser garantizadas.