When must the first Florida mediation conference or arbitration hearing be held?

Preserve the entered referral order and identify mediation or arbitration and the referred issues.

Read the actual setting, court directions and dispositions of deferral or disqualification motions.

Preserve mediator or arbitrator designation and the written session notice.

1. Preserve the entered referral order and identify mediation or arbitration and the referred issues.
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.

Rule 1.700(a)(1) preserves different court directions, and paragraphs (c) and (d) provide specific tolling. The actual first-session setting and notice remain distinct from the ordinary outer interval.

Referral entry and later service are different events

Rule 1.700(a) permits a presiding judge’s referral order or a filed written stipulation for contested civil matters, subject to legal exclusions. The fifteen-day motion periods use the actual order of referral. Preserve the entered order and its terms; later service, mediator designation and the first session are separate events.

The specific motion determines tolling

Rule 1.700(c) expressly tolls mediation or arbitration until disposition of the motion to defer. Paragraph (d) tolls the period while a motion to disqualify is pending. Paragraph (b) does not expressly give a motion to dispense that same automatic tolling. Read the actual motion, hearing and court disposition before treating the schedule as suspended.

The court can direct a different first-session schedule

Rule 1.700(a)(1) expressly begins with unless otherwise ordered by the court. Establish the actual order instead of assuming the default sixty days controls every referral.

Session notice and participation are distinct requirements

Written notice under paragraph (a)(2) follows designation and must provide the prescribed scheduling and access information unless already specified. Paragraph (a) ordinarily requires in-person proceedings absent an authorized communication-technology alternative.

• 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.

• Preserve the entered referral order and identify mediation or arbitration and the referred issues.
• Read the actual setting, court directions and dispositions of deferral or disqualification motions.
• Preserve mediator or arbitrator designation and the written session notice.
• Rule 1.700(a) permits a presiding judge’s referral order or a filed written stipulation for contested civil matters, subject to legal exclusions. The fifteen-day motion periods use the actual order of referral. Preserve the entered order and its terms; later service, mediator designation and the first session are separate events.
• Rule 1.700(c) expressly tolls mediation or arbitration until disposition of the motion to defer. Paragraph (d) tolls the period while a motion to disqualify is pending. Paragraph (b) does not expressly give a motion to dispense that same automatic tolling. Read the actual motion, hearing and court disposition before treating the schedule as suspended.
• Rule 1.700(a)(1) expressly begins with unless otherwise ordered by the court. Establish the actual order instead of assuming the default sixty days controls every referral.
• Written notice under paragraph (a)(2) follows designation and must provide the prescribed scheduling and access information unless already specified. Paragraph (a) ordinarily requires in-person proceedings absent an authorized communication-technology alternative.
• Rule 1.700(a)(2) requires the court or designee to notify parties in writing within fifteen days after mediator or arbitrator designation, unless the referral order, another order or written stipulation already specifies the required information. Preserve the date, time, applicable place and communication-technology access instructions. That notice duty uses designation, not referral entry.