When must a party move to tax Florida appellate costs?

Identify the actual appellate order and independently establish its completed rendition.

Identify the prevailing-party treatment, requested taxable items and proper lower tribunal.

Check any stay or recall of the mandate and actual further appellate directions.

1. Identify the actual appellate order and independently establish its completed rendition.
2. Rule 9.420(e) incorporates Rule 2.514(a). Exclude the established event. For seven days or longer, begin with the next day that is not Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday. Count intermediate calendar days. For fewer than seven days, omit intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. Do not treat a seven-day period as seven business days.
3. Check the observed statutory holidays, actual clerk calendar and chief-justice directions.
4. Complete the required act with the proper court or recipient.

Apply the observed New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day holidays. Section 110.117 observes Saturday holidays on the preceding Friday and Sunday holidays on the following Monday. Rule 2.514 also includes clerk-observed holidays and days designated by the chief justice or chief judge. An ineligible final day moves in the counting direction. The bundled Florida calendar covers 2026 through 2028. Verify additional closures and chief-justice extensions separately.

Fictitious example

Fictitious facts. The appellate order is actually rendered with no qualifying unresolved motion or different applicable direction. The independently established event is August 2, 2027. No additional holiday, mail-only addition, tolling or different order applies.

Fictitious facts. Establish the stated procedure and actual event separately. No mail-only addition, further clerk holiday, tolling motion, chief-justice extension or different actual court order is assumed.

Use appellate rendition, not later delivery

Rule 9.020(i) defines appellate rendition by entry in the court docket, with postponement for its stated authorized and timely postdecision motions. Establish the actual completed rendition applicable to this act. Service, receipt and mandate issuance are separate events.

Taxable costs are the rule’s prescribed items

Rule 9.400(a) identifies filing and service-of-process fees, record preparation and transcripts necessary to determine the proceeding, bond premiums and other costs permitted by law. Costs favor the prevailing party unless the court orders otherwise. Establish actual permitted items rather than treating every expense as taxable.

The lower tribunal cannot act during a stayed or recalled mandate

If an appellate order stays mandate issuance or recalls the mandate, Rule 9.400(a) prohibits further lower-tribunal cost action pending issuance of the mandate or a further appellate order. Preserve the actual stay, recall and later action separately from timely motion service.

Mailing the order does not add five days to a rendition-based period

Rule 2.514(b) addresses a party’s act measured after mail-only service. This costs period uses appellate rendition. Later delivery or mail service of the order is not automatically a different trigger or a five-day addition.

• This page does not establish appealability, jurisdiction, disputed facts, sufficiency or an extension.
• Check the governing historical edition, actual motions, orders, clerk holidays and filing receipts.

• Identify the actual appellate order and independently establish its completed rendition.
• Identify the prevailing-party treatment, requested taxable items and proper lower tribunal.
• Check any stay or recall of the mandate and actual further appellate directions.
• Rule 9.020(i) defines appellate rendition by entry in the court docket, with postponement for its stated authorized and timely postdecision motions. Establish the actual completed rendition applicable to this act. Service, receipt and mandate issuance are separate events.
• Rule 9.400(a) identifies filing and service-of-process fees, record preparation and transcripts necessary to determine the proceeding, bond premiums and other costs permitted by law. Costs favor the prevailing party unless the court orders otherwise. Establish actual permitted items rather than treating every expense as taxable.
• If an appellate order stays mandate issuance or recalls the mandate, Rule 9.400(a) prohibits further lower-tribunal cost action pending issuance of the mandate or a further appellate order. Preserve the actual stay, recall and later action separately from timely motion service.
• Rule 2.514(b) addresses a party’s act measured after mail-only service. This costs period uses appellate rendition. Later delivery or mail service of the order is not automatically a different trigger or a five-day addition.
• Serve the motion to tax qualifying appellate costs within the applicable period and complete required filing in the lower tribunal. Preserve rendition, cost support, service and filing receipts and any mandate-related orders. Identify the proper clerk and complete filing and service as separate acts. Rule 9.420(a) incorporates Rule 2.525. Attorneys ordinarily file through the portal or designated electronic facility. An eligible unrepresented party may elect electronic filing; prescribed paper exceptions remain. Preserve the successful portal or clerk filing timestamp under Rule 2.525(e). Unless another controlling time applies, Rule 2.514(a)(4) sets 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time for electronic filing or service by any means, and scheduled clerk closing for nonelectronic filing. Rule 9.420(a)(2) separately addresses qualifying unrepresented inmate filings and their proof. This calculator does not establish successful submission, sufficiency, a tolling motion or permission to extend a jurisdictional period. Rule 9.420(b)–(d) incorporates Rule 2.516 service and proof. Portal service is complete on filing for listed recipients, subject to promptly serving a recipient known not to have received the document. Email service is complete when sent. Permitted paper mail service is complete on mailing; delivery is complete on delivery. Rule 2.514(b) adds five days after the otherwise computed expiration only when the act is measured after service and service was made only by mail. Email or portal service does not automatically add five days. A filing-based or rendition-based period does not gain five days because another document was mailed. Establish the actual applicable service before choosing a service-based period.