When is a Florida nonfinal-appeal initial brief due?

Establish the qualifying Rule 9.130 appeal and its actual notice filing.

Prepare the initial brief and prescribed appendix.

Check actual briefing directions and applicable motion effects before using twenty days.

1. Establish the qualifying Rule 9.130 appeal and its actual notice filing.
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 qualifying nonfinal notice is actually filed with no relevant motion or extension. 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.

The brief requires an appendix

Rule 9.130(e) requires the initial brief accompanied by the Rule 9.220 appendix. The absence of an automatically transmitted record under paragraph (d) does not remove that requirement.

Actual motions and extension orders can change the briefing schedule

Rule 9.300(b) tolls the proceeding schedule on service of a motion unless paragraph (d) excepts it. Actual extension orders can change related acts and the next brief after record, index or transcript extensions. Establish the applicable motion, exception, disposition and order before using the ordinary unmodified period.

The brief’s contents and limits remain separate from timing

Rule 9.210(a) sets the applicable permitted briefs, cover information and word or page limits. The relevant contents subdivision requires the appropriate arguments, tables, service certificate and computer-generated compliance certificate. A computed date does not establish brief sufficiency.

Additional briefs follow their own service-based stages

Rule 9.130(e) incorporates Rule 9.210 for additional briefs. Establish each controlling service event, any multiple-brief branch and mail-only addition separately.

• 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.

• Establish the qualifying Rule 9.130 appeal and its actual notice filing.
• Prepare the initial brief and prescribed appendix.
• Check actual briefing directions and applicable motion effects before using twenty days.
• Rule 9.130(e) requires the initial brief accompanied by the Rule 9.220 appendix. The absence of an automatically transmitted record under paragraph (d) does not remove that requirement.
• Rule 9.300(b) tolls the proceeding schedule on service of a motion unless paragraph (d) excepts it. Actual extension orders can change related acts and the next brief after record, index or transcript extensions. Establish the applicable motion, exception, disposition and order before using the ordinary unmodified period.
• Rule 9.210(a) sets the applicable permitted briefs, cover information and word or page limits. The relevant contents subdivision requires the appropriate arguments, tables, service certificate and computer-generated compliance certificate. A computed date does not establish brief sufficiency.
• Rule 9.130(e) incorporates Rule 9.210 for additional briefs. Establish each controlling service event, any multiple-brief branch and mail-only addition separately.
• Serve the initial brief with the Rule 9.220 appendix and complete prescribed filing and proof. Preserve actual notice filing, service and applicable court directions. 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.