Jan Shackelford

This is intended as a brief overview of procedures in an effort to assist parties handling cases before Judge Shackelford.  Should you have any additional questions not addressed in the overview, please contact Denise Moffitt at 850-595-4453 or via email at denise.moffitt@flcourts1.gov.

Division "E-Civil" in Escambia County is a Circuit Civil Division.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Code of Judicial Conduct precludes Judicial Assistants from making substantive inquiries of the Judge on behalf of any attorney or litigant involved in any action. The Code prohibits all Judges from considering ex parte (one side only) communications.  For that reason, litigants may not contact a Judge directly in person, by email or telephone to discuss a case. 

Judicial Assistants are neither qualified nor able to provide legal advice to anyone. Judicial Assistants may assist with procedural inquiries only.

Any issue to be considered by the Judge should be in the form of a motion filed with the Clerk of Court with copies provided to all parties of record. Due to the high volume of civil cases, the Judge does not automatically receive a copy of every motion filed.  It is the responsibility of the moving party to set the motion for a hearing.  Merely filing a motion will not bring the matter before the Court. 

CIVIL CASES

Case Management Conferences and Pre-trial Conferences are required for all jury trials. Mediation is required for all jury trials and any bench trials requiring more than two (2) hours.  Mediation must be scheduled prior to setting a case on the trial docket and can be no more than a year prior to the date of trial.  Trials scheduled for more than one (1) week will be required to remediate no later than one (1) month prior to trial.

The opposing party will have ten (10) days to file an objection to the Notice for Trial.  The Court will prepare an Order Setting Case Management Conference.  The conference will be set without coordinating with the parties.  If the scheduled conference time is inconvenient for the parties, it will be the responsibility of the party with the conflict to reschedule the conference immediately upon receipt of the order by contacting the Judicial Assistant.  Dates will be provided to coordinate with opposing party.  Once a date is confirmed, the Court will prepare an amended Order.

SCHEDULING A HEARING

If your telephone system has the capability, arrange conference calls with opposing counsel’s office prior to calling the Judge’s office.  If your system does not have the capability for conference calling, please contact the Judge’s office for dates to coordinate with opposing counsel.  If a hearing needs to be set before or after a particular date, please let the Judicial Assistant know before dates are offered.  It will be the moving party’s responsibility to coordinate the hearing.  Dates will not be protected/final until the Judge’s office is notified that the hearing has been coordinated.  Always contact the Judicial Assistant by phone to confirm the hearing date.  Please do not leave a voice mail to schedule a hearing or send an email for scheduling as messages are sometime unclear, incomplete, or the date/time may no longer be available.

When calling to schedule the hearing, please have all the information needed, such as the case number, case style, type of hearing you are setting, amount of time needed for the hearing and name(s) of the attorneys involved in the case.  You must allow enough time for both sides to be heard. No additional motions should be added to the existing hearing time without first coordinating with the Judicial Assistant and other counsel/parties.  The Judge will not hear motions which have not been properly scheduled and noticed. Judge Shackelford strictly adheres to the amount of time requested. 

Case law for consideration at a motion hearing must be submitted to the Judicial Assistant via e-mail or hand delivery at least three (3) days prior to the hearing.

It is the responsibility of the party seeking the hearing to prepare and file a Notice of Hearing which includes the Zoom information. Please e-mail the Judicial Assistant a copy of the notice reflecting the filing stamp.

A hearing may not be necessary if the motion is stipulated.  These matters can be expedited if the moving party states within the motion that they have conferred with opposing counsel/party who has no objection or if opposing counsel/party indicates his or her approval by initialing the proposed order.  The Court will review all cases with a stipulated motion before deciding whether to approve the stipulation.

If a hearing is no longer necessary, please notify the Judge’s office immediately by phone.  If it is less than 48 hours until the hearing, notification is required by both phone and email. 

REMOTE APPEARANCE GUIDELINES

At this time, unless an in-person hearing is requested and agreed to by all parties, all Division E civil hearings are via Zoom and the information below should be included in the Notice of Hearing:

You may join the meeting from a Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet. You will be prompted upon joining the meeting as to which device you want to use for audio. You may either select “Join with computer audio” to use the built-in microphone and speakers on your device, or you may select “phone call” and dial in on a separate telephone for audio.

If your video does not automatically turn on upon joining the meeting, you may need to click in the bottom left corner to “Start Video.”

Please use the highlighted link below to connect to the Zoom meeting. You may join the meeting anytime beforehand to test your speakers and microphone using the built-in test feature.

*Please remember to mute your microphone when you are not speaking.*

*Please connect to the Zoom meeting 10 minutes before the hearing begins.*

Join Zoom Meeting from Computer

Meeting ID: 762 375 3843 

https://zoom.us/j/7623753843

Dial-in from telephone

   +1 312 626 6799 US (Primary)

  +1 929 205 6099 US (Secondary)

Although the hearing is being conducted remotely, proper courtroom decorum should be maintained.  Dress as if you are coming to the courthouse. Participants should be in a quiet setting and minimize any external distractions. Be aware of what is behind you and choose a solid neutral wall, if possible.  DO NOT DRIVE WHILE IN ATTENDANCE

Please confer with all parties prior to the hearing to determine any stipulations as to the admission of evidence and documents.  If you intend to present any evidence or documents to the court, you must pre-mark all items for identification and serve a copy to all parties no less than two (2) business days prior to the hearing.  If there are any pro se parties involved in your case without an email address on file, a copy of the pre-marked evidence shall be served on them, via US Mail, no later than two (2) business days prior to the hearing.

The Attorney or party requesting that third parties attend the hearing will be responsible for sharing the Zoom hearing information and making arrangements for their appearance(s).  This includes witnesses, court reporters, etc. Witnesses may not communicate with anyone during their testimony.  If the Rule of Sequestration is invoked, witnesses will be asked to login at a designated time or will be placed in the waiting room.

Pre-trial conferences for cases set for jury trial are in-person.  Jury trials are also conducted in-person. 

POST HEARING

The Court will direct a specific attorney or party to prepare the order.  An advance copy should be provided to opposing counsel to determine whether there is an objection as to form prior to its submission to the Court.  The proposed order should then be provided with a cover letter indicating opposing counsel’s position.  Otherwise, the proposed order will be held a minimum of seven (7) days for opposing counsel to respond.  Please email all proposed orders/judgment, in Microsoft Word format to denise.moffitt@flcourts1.gov.  Please include the style, case number and title of proposed order in the subject line of the email.