When must Florida nonbinding arbitration be completed?

Establish the actual first arbitration hearing and preserve its notice and record.

Identify any extension motion and the court’s actual extension order.

Preserve completion, final adjournment, written decision notification and service as distinct events.

1. Establish the actual first arbitration hearing and preserve its notice and record.
2. Rule 1.090(a) 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.

The ordinary completion component and any court-ordered extension require actual hearing and order facts. Completion, final adjournment, written notification and later decision service are distinct events. One input cannot establish all of them.

An extension requires a court order on the prescribed motion

Rule 1.820(g)(1) permits extension by court order on motion of the chief arbitrator or a party. Neither the motion alone nor an arbitrator’s informal scheduling direction establishes the extension.

The extension ceiling uses the original first hearing

The rule limits extensions to sixty days from the date of the first hearing. Do not add sixty days to the ordinary thirty-day endpoint or restart the ceiling at an adjourned session.

Final adjournment starts a separate notification duty

Rule 1.820(g)(3) requires written decision notification within ten days of final adjournment, and sealed filing when notification occurs. First hearing, completion and final adjournment are not interchangeable dates.

Rejection requires the prescribed filed document

Rule 1.820(h) measures ordinary rejection from service of the written decision and requires rejection and a request for trial in the same filed document. A completed arbitration alone starts no assumed service-based period.

• This page does not establish a valid referral, actual court setting, sufficient good cause, settlement authority or court enforcement.
• Check the operative edition, actual notice, record activity, motions, interruptions, orders and additional closures.

• Establish the actual first arbitration hearing and preserve its notice and record.
• Identify any extension motion and the court’s actual extension order.
• Preserve completion, final adjournment, written decision notification and service as distinct events.
• Rule 1.820(g)(1) permits extension by court order on motion of the chief arbitrator or a party. Neither the motion alone nor an arbitrator’s informal scheduling direction establishes the extension.
• The rule limits extensions to sixty days from the date of the first hearing. Do not add sixty days to the ordinary thirty-day endpoint or restart the ceiling at an adjourned session.
• Rule 1.820(g)(3) requires written decision notification within ten days of final adjournment, and sealed filing when notification occurs. First hearing, completion and final adjournment are not interchangeable dates.
• Rule 1.820(h) measures ordinary rejection from service of the written decision and requires rejection and a request for trial in the same filed document. A completed arbitration alone starts no assumed service-based period.
• Under Rule 1.820(g)(2), the arbitrator or panel renders a decision on completion, with a majority vote for a panel. Paragraph (g)(3) separately requires written notification within ten days of final adjournment and sealed filing of the decision and original transcripts when the parties are notified. Establish actual service separately before calculating a rejection filing.