Florida SB 666: Noncriminal Traffic Infractions

Bill Text

666 
Performance Reports of Circuit and County Court Judges 
2025-11-25T03:18:48Z 
Citing this act as the “Judicial Efficiency and Transparency (JET) Act”; requiring each clerk of the circuit court to prepare an annual performance report with specified information regarding each circuit and county court judge; requiring such reports to be posted by a certain date on specified websites; authorizing judges to prepare a specified explanatory statement, etc. 
Original Filed Version 
2026 
S 
2026-07-01T00:00:00Z 
GB 
General Bill 
__ 

 Florida Senate - 2026 SB 666 

 By Senator Bernard 

 24-01274-26 2026666__ 
 1 A bill to be entitled 
 2 An act relating to performance reports of circuit and 
 3 county court judges; providing a short title; creating 
 4 s. 28.51, F.S.; requiring each clerk of the circuit 
 5 court to prepare an annual performance report with 
 6 specified information regarding each circuit and 
 7 county court judge; defining the term “final 
 8 disposition”; requiring such reports to be posted by a 
 9 certain date on specified websites; requiring such 
 10 reports to remain posted for a specified time period; 
 11 authorizing judges to prepare a specified explanatory 
 12 statement; requiring such statements to be posted with 
 13 the relevant reports in certain circumstances; 
 14 providing for a specified reporting period; providing 
 15 an effective date. 
 16 
 17 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
 18 
 19 Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Judicial 
 20 Efficiency and Transparency (JET) Act.” 
 21 Section 2. Section 28.51, Florida Statutes, is created to 
 22 read: 
 23 28.51 Performance reports of circuit and county court 
 24 judges.— 
 25 (1) Each clerk of the circuit court shall prepare an annual 
 26 performance report regarding the judicial efficiency of each 
 27 circuit and county court judge in this state. The report shall 
 28 detail the judicial activities during the preceding calendar 
 29 year and contain, but need not be limited to, the following 
 30 information, all of which shall be separated by court division: 
 31 (a) The number of cases assigned to each judge. 
 32 (b) The number of cases that have reached final 
 33 disposition. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “final 
 34 disposition” means the rendering of a decision or a judgment by 
 35 a judge in a judicial proceeding in which a case is finally 
 36 determined by adjudication, dismissal, or other final 
 37 disposition. 
 38 (c) The clearance rate, stated as the total percentage of 
 39 cases filed during each reporting period which were disposed of. 
 40 (d) The average length of all active pending cases, 
 41 measured as the number of days from filing until the end of each 
 42 reporting period. 
 43 (e) The number of civil cases assigned to each judge, 
 44 except civil cases placed on inactive status, pending for 3 
 45 years or more, measured from the filing of a complaint or other 
 46 filing initiating a case until the end of each reporting period. 
 47 (f) The average number of days, beginning on the date a 
 48 hearing is scheduled and ending on the date the hearing is held, 
 49 for each hearing held in each reporting period. 
 50 (2) On or before April 1 of each year, each report shall be 
 51 posted on the website of the clerk of the circuit court, as 
 52 applicable, and on the website of each circuit and county court 
 53 and shall remain posted for the duration of the tenure of the 
 54 subject judge. 
 55 (3) A judge may prepare an explanatory statement detailing 
 56 the basis for any extenuating circumstance that the judge 
 57 believes impacts the metrics reported pursuant to this section. 
 58 Upon approval of the chief judge of each circuit, the 
 59 explanatory statement shall be posted with the annual 
 60 performance report pursuant to subsection (2). 
 61 (4) The first reporting period required by this section 
 62 shall be the 2028 calendar year. 
 63 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.