42
Fla. L. Weekly S212aTop of Form

Rules
of Civil Procedure — Amendment — Prospective juror questionnaire form

IN
RE: AMENDMENTS TO THE FLORIDA RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE — FORM 1.983
(PROSPECTIVE JUROR QUESTIONNAIRE). Supreme Court of Florida. Case No. SC16-996.
February 23, 2017. Original Proceeding — Florida Rules of Civil Procedure.
Counsel: Roger James Haughey, II, Chair, Civil Procedure Rules Committee,
Sivyer Barlow & Watson, P.A., Tampa; Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola, Past
Chair, Civil Procedure Rules Committee, Miami; Miguel J. Chamorro, Vice Chair,
Civil Procedure Rules Committee, Lydecker Diaz LLC, Miami; Jane Kreusler-Walsh,
Vice Chair, Civil Procedure Rules Committee, Compiani & Vargas, P.A., West
Palm Beach, Judge Rodolfo Armando Ruiz, II, Vice Chair, Civil Procedure Rules
Committee, Miami; and John F. Harkness, Jr., Executive Director, and Krys
Godwin, Bar Staff Liaison, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, for Petitioner.
Jeffrey R. Smith, Vero Beach, Florida, Responding with Comments

(PER
CURIAM.) The Court has for consideration amendments to Florida Rule of Civil
Procedure Form 1.983 (Prospective Juror Questionnaire) proposed by The Florida
Bar’s Civil Procedure Rules Committee (Committee).1 The Board of Governors of The Florida
Bar approved the Committee’s proposals, which we adopt with the modifications
and additional amendment explained below.

The
more significant amendments proposed in the Committee’s out-of-cycle report2 add directions to the parties and to
the court on the minimization of sensitive information on the prospective juror
questionnaire, as required by Florida Rule of Judicial Administration
2.425(a)(2), and revise question 13 on the questionnaire to conform to section
40.013(4), Florida Statutes (2016), which provides for the excusal of expectant
mothers and certain parents, upon request. The Committee proposes additional
amendments to the form in its response to a comment by Indian River County
Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller Jeffrey R. Smith, who suggests several
changes to the form. One of the Committee’s additional proposals is intended to
conform question 8 on the questionnaire with section 40.013(2)(b), Florida
Statutes (2016), which provides for the excusal of full-time federal, state, or
local law enforcement officers and such entities’ investigative personnel. The
Committee also proposes several amendments to the summons language under the
signature line on the form, the most significant of which revises that language
to reflect that the clerk of court, not the sheriff, summons jurors, consistent
with section 40.23(1), Florida Statutes (2016).

After
considering the Committee’s report, the comment, and the response, we adopt the
amendments to question 13 (expectant mothers and parents), the revisions to the
summons language, and the grammatical and stylistic changes proposed by the
Committee. However, we modify the proposed directions at the top of the form to
direct “attorneys and pro se litigants” to redact the month and date of the
prospective juror’s birth before filing a copy of the form, consistent with
rule 2.425(a)(2). See In re Implementation of Comm. on Privacy & Court
Records Recommendations, 78 So. 3d 1045, 1049-50 (Fla. 2011) (explaining
that Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.425 provides the procedures for
minimizing the amount of sensitive personal information included in documents
being filed with the court and Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.420
governs the procedures for determining the confidentiality of information after
it has been filed, and recognizing that under rule 2.425, it is the filer
(attorney or pro se litigant) who must not file or must truncate or redact
sensitive personal information listed in the rule before a document is filed
with the court). We also modify the proposed amendments to question 8 (law
enforcement officers and investigative personnel) consistent with section
40.013(2)(b), which allows full-time federal, state, or local law enforcement
officers and such entities’ investigative personnel, who otherwise would be
excused from jury service, to “choose to serve.” Finally, we amend the note
about the caption at the end of the form to reference the “authority charged by
law with the selection of prospective jurors,” consistent with Florida Rule of
Civil Procedure 1.431(a)(1), rather than the currently referenced
“jury-selecting authority such as ‘Board of County Commissioners of Leon
County, Florida,’ or ‘Pinellas County Jury Commission.’ ” See §§ 40.001;
40.011, Fla. Stat. (2016) (providing that the clerk of the circuit court is
responsible for the processing of jurors, including the qualifications and the
generation of juror candidate lists).

Accordingly,
we amend the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure as set forth in the appendix to
this opinion. New language is indicated by underscoring; deletions are
indicated by struck-through type. The amendments shall become effective
immediately upon the release of this opinion.

It
is so ordered. (LABARGA, C.J., and PARIENTE, LEWIS, QUINCE, CANADY, and
POLSTON, JJ., concur. LAWSON, J., did not participate.)

[Editor’s
note: The Appendix is not included in this report. It may be viewed in its
entirety in our Rule Revisions section of our website at
www.FloridaLawWeekly.com at no charge. Subscribers may call our office at
800-351-0917 to request a copy.]

__________________

1We
have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const.

2See
Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.140(e).

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