Senior Judges

Introduction

Senior judges are a vital judicial resource.  Senior judges are retired judges called back to service to help the state process legal cases in a timely manner. They significantly improve the services that Florida’s courts are able to provide citizens and do so at less cost to taxpayers. 

Among other things, the continued public service of senior judges:

• lets parties have better and speedier access to courts.
• lets the courts reduce delays in trial calendars.
• lets the state reduce costly backlogs.
• lets parties and the court reduce expensive interruptions that are caused when judicial offices are vacant or when active judges are unable to serve because of illness or other reasons. 

Under the state Constitution, the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court has “the power to assign justices or judges, including consenting retired justices or judges, to temporary duty in any court for which the judge is qualified.”  The chief justice also has the authority “to delegate to a chief judge of a judicial circuit court the power to assign judges for duty within that circuit” (Article V, section 2(b), Florida Constitution).  The judges who are assigned to temporary judicial duty are known as senior judges.

Both Florida's judicial system and the people of Florida benefit from the service of these competent, experienced jurists. Their services are especially important when the state experiences unusual backlogs in case processing because of unexpected events like foreclosures caused by an economic recession or widespread delays in trials caused by a pandemic.

Application to become a SENIOR JUDGE

Please contact (850) 488-4973 for more information about the application process.