In Re: Certification of Need for Additional Judges

Summary

The court fulfilled its constitutional obligation to assess judicial need for fiscal year 2023-24 and certified no need for additional county, circuit, or district court judgeships. It recommended eliminating one county court judgeship in Brevard County based on a demonstrated multiyear trend of excess capacity, while declining to reduce judgeships in other counties because of pandemic-related workload uncertainty, pending case backlogs, jurisdictional changes, and the need to update workload weights. The court also recommended that excess capacity in the First and Second District Courts of Appeal be addressed through attrition rather than involuntary removal of sitting judges. Justice Grosshans concurred in part and dissented in part, arguing that the Brevard County judgeship should also be retained because of uncertainty in projecting post-pandemic judicial need.