Title: In Re: Amendments To The Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure – Rule 8.003
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: SC09-2195
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: June 24, 2010

Supreme Court of Florida 
 
 
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No. SC09-2195 
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IN RE:  AMENDMENTS TO THE FLORIDA RULES OF JUVENILE 
PROCEDURE—RULE 8.003. 
 
[June 24, 2010] 
 
PER CURIAM. 
 
This matter is before the Court for consideration of a proposed new Florida 
Rule of Juvenile Procedure.  We have jurisdiction.  See art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const.; 
Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.140(f). 
 
In October 2009, we amended Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure Form 
12.928 (Cover Sheet for Family Court Cases).  We also amended rule 12.100(a) to 
require any party opening or reopening a case under the Florida Family Law Rules 
of Procedure to file a completed Form 12.928 with the clerk of the circuit court.   In 
re Amendments to the Fla. Rules of Civil Procedure—Mgmt. of Cases Involving 
Complex Litig., 30 So. 3d 477, 479 (Fla. 2009).  In the opinion, this Court 
expressly stated that its intent was to ensure that Form 12.928 is filed in all cases 
under the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure or the Florida Rules of Juvenile 
 
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Procedure.  As there was no juvenile rule requiring use of the form in juvenile 
cases, the Court requested the Juvenile Court Rules Committee (Committee) to 
propose amendments to the juvenile rules to require use of the form in all cases 
filed under the juvenile rules.  Id.  
 
On November 30, 2009, the Committee filed an out-of-cycle report 
proposing new Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure 8.003, which would require the 
use of Form 12.928 in proceedings instituted under Parts II (Dependency and 
Termination of Parental Rights Proceedings), III (Proceedings for Families and 
Children in Need of Services), or IV (Other Proceedings) of the Florida Rules of 
Juvenile Procedure.  The rule proposed by the Committee would have excluded 
juvenile delinquency cases (Part I of the Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure) from 
the requirement of filing Form 12.928 when such proceedings are instituted. 
 
After the proposal was filed, the Court published the proposed new rule for 
comment.  One comment was filed, to which the Committee filed a response. 
 
Upon consideration of the Committee’s report, the comment, and the 
Committee’s response, we adopt new Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure 8.003 
with modification.  We decline to exclude juvenile delinquency proceedings from 
the requirement that Form 12.928 be filed in juvenile cases.  The information 
provided on the form is needed in juvenile delinquency proceedings to enable the 
 
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State’s court system to best serve that population as well.  Furthermore, the 
completion of the one form is not overly burdensome. 
 
New Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure 8.003 is adopted as reflected in the 
appendix to this opinion.  The amendment shall become effective immediately 
upon release of this opinion. 
 
It is so ordered. 
QUINCE, C.J., and PARIENTE, LEWIS, CANADY, POLSTON, LABARGA, 
and PERRY, JJ., concur. 
 
THE FILING OF A MOTION FOR REHEARING SHALL NOT ALTER THE 
EFFECTIVE DATE OF THESE AMENDMENTS. 
 
 
Original Proceeding – The Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure Committee 
 
Charles Hugh Davis, Chair, Juvenile Court Rules Committee, Jacksonville, 
Florida, Ronald S. Frankel, Vice Chair, Clearwater, Florida, and John F. Harkness, 
Jr., Executive Director, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, Florida, 
 
 
for Petitioner 
 
Mary Lynn Powell, Assistant State of Attorney, Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West 
Palm Beach, Florida, 
 
 
Responding with Comments 
 
 
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APPENDIX 
 
RULE 8.003. 
FAMILY LAW COVER SHEET 
 
 
The party opening or reopening a case under Part I, II, III, or IV of these 
rules shall file with the clerk of the circuit court Florida Family Law Rules of 
Procedure Form 12.928, Cover Sheet for Family Law Cases.