With the elevation of 4th Judicial Circuit Judge Adrian Soud to the 5th District Court of Appeal and the retirement of Duval County Judge Roberto Arias, there are vacancies on the circuit and county court benches.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has directed the 4th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission to provide him with qualified nominees to fill the vacancies.
Applications may be downloaded from The Florida Bar’s website at www.floridabar.org or the Office of the Governor at www.flgov.com.
Complete unredacted and redacted applications must be received before 5 p.m. Feb. 1 via email to: [email protected]. Interviews will be conducted on a date to be determined in Chief Judge Mark Mahon’s chambers at the Duval County Courthouse.
Applicants must meet the qualifications for judges outlined in Article V, Section 8 of the Florida Constitution.
Personal information not subject to public disclosure should be redacted on a separate copy of the application as permitted by Section 119.071 of the Florida Statutes. All questions on the application must be fully and completely answered.
Applications must include current contact information including direct telephone numbers and email addresses for judges, co-counsel, opposing counsel and references to facilitate the background investigation that the commission will conduct.
All proceedings of the commission are open to the public except for deliberations. Accordingly, applicants should not expect their application be kept confidential.
If an applicant is nominated, all materials attached to the original application will be submitted to DeSantis’ office.
For questions about the application process, contact JNC Chair Patrick Joyce at (904) 357-3660 or the email address above.
Applicants shall not initiate contact with the commissioners until the nominees are submitted to DeSantis unless questions pertain to the application process only.