When must parties attend mandatory mediation in a Florida medical-negligence action?

Preserve the complaint’s actual successful filing date.

Determine whether the parties agreed to binding arbitration under section 766.207.

Read any mutual extension, referral order and actual in-person mediation setting.

1. Preserve the complaint’s actual successful filing date.
2. The statute states a 120-day postfiling period with an all-party extension condition. Establish that condition and the actual setting before applying computation rules. Do not replace an attended in-person mediation with an automatically calculated outer boundary or assume an ordinary sixty-day referral period governs this statute.
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.

Binding arbitration can change whether the mandatory mediation requirement applies. All parties may extend the period. An actual in-person setting and the applicable mediation rules remain necessary. One complaint-filing input cannot establish the attendance obligation.

Binding arbitration changes the statutory mediation condition

Section 766.108(1) applies if the parties have not agreed to binding arbitration under section 766.207. The arbitration statute supplies its own election and acceptance procedures. An offer alone does not establish a completed arbitration agreement.

The extension requires mutual agreement of every party

The provision permits extension by mutual agreement of all parties. Preserve the actual agreed period and party set. A single party’s request or a mediator’s informal suggestion does not establish that agreement.

Attendance is expressly in person

Section 766.108(1) expressly requires in-person mandatory mediation and applies the Civil Procedure Rules. Establish the actual setting and governing attendance requirements. This guide does not infer remote attendance or an exemption.

General referral and medical-negligence requirements are distinct

Section 44.102(1) requires court-ordered mediation under the Supreme Court’s procedural rules. Its paragraph (2)(a)3. excludes medical malpractice from the separate mandatory referral on one party’s request. Section 766.108(1) independently requires the stated medical-negligence mediation.

• This guide does not establish timely presuit notice, a limitation or repose extension, a complete filing window or medical negligence.
• Check the governing historical edition, actual motions, orders, clerk holidays and filing receipts.

• Preserve the complaint’s actual successful filing date.
• Determine whether the parties agreed to binding arbitration under section 766.207.
• Read any mutual extension, referral order and actual in-person mediation setting.
• Section 766.108(1) applies if the parties have not agreed to binding arbitration under section 766.207. The arbitration statute supplies its own election and acceptance procedures. An offer alone does not establish a completed arbitration agreement.
• The provision permits extension by mutual agreement of all parties. Preserve the actual agreed period and party set. A single party’s request or a mediator’s informal suggestion does not establish that agreement.
• Section 766.108(1) expressly requires in-person mandatory mediation and applies the Civil Procedure Rules. Establish the actual setting and governing attendance requirements. This guide does not infer remote attendance or an exemption.
• Section 44.102(1) requires court-ordered mediation under the Supreme Court’s procedural rules. Its paragraph (2)(a)3. excludes medical malpractice from the separate mandatory referral on one party’s request. Section 766.108(1) independently requires the stated medical-negligence mediation.
• Attend the actual prescribed in-person mediation with the required participants and authority under the applicable mediation rules. Preserve the filing, arbitration status, actual referral or setting, any mutual extension and attendance record. A calculated outer boundary does not complete attendance or create a settlement.