Court amends how new circuits are determined.

The Supreme Court has amended the rule by which it determines the need for new circuits or appelate districts.

On its own motion, the court amended Rules of Judicial Administration 2.240 and 2.241 on November 14.

Art. V, [section] 9 of the Florida Constitution charges the court to set procedures for determining the number of judges and for determining the number of appellate districts and judicial circuits.

Currently, Rule 2.241 requires the chief justice at least every eight years to appoint a committee to study the capacity of the DCAs. There is no rule for looking at circuits to determine if the number needs to be increased or decreased or circuit boundaries changed.

"The amendments to Rule 2.241, that we adopt here, remove the requirement that the chief justice appoint a committee to assess the district courts and add a uniform procedure for evaluating both the appellate districts and the judicial circuits. Under the new procedure, the certification process for the appellate districts and the judicial circuits must be completed in conjunction with the court's annual determination regarding the need for judges under Rule 2.240(d)," the opinion said.

The opinion said that chief judges of the circuit and appellate courts will review annual statistics provided by...