Florida First District Court of Appeal

---

Please help others learn about Florida courts and judges by expanding this Florida-related article.

The Florida First District Court of Appeal is one of five intermediate appellate courts in Florida. It is located in Tallahassee.

Judges are appointed by the Governor and serve for at least one year before facing a retention election at the following general election. Once retained, they serve 6 year terms, starting from the first Tuesday (after the first Monday) in the January following their retention election.

• Court
• Elections

Florida First District Court of Appeal
Court information
Judges:	15
Judicial selection
Method:	Commission-selection, political appointment
Term:	6 years
Active judges
Robert Benton  •  Nikki Ann Clark  •  Marguerite Davis  •  Joseph Lewis  •  William Van Nortwick  •  Philip Padovano  •  L. Clayton Roberts  •  Bradford Thomas  •  James Wolf  •  T. Kent Wetherell  •  Lori S. Rowe  •  Simone Marstiller  •  Ronald V. Swanson  •  Stephanie Williams Ray  •  Scott D. Makar  •

Current judges

Judge	Term	Division	Appointed by	Party
Judge Robert Benton	1994-2015
Judge Nikki Ann Clark	2009-2017		Gov. Charlie Crist
Judge Marguerite Davis	1993-2015
Judge Joseph Lewis	2001-2015
Judge William Van Nortwick	1994-2015
Judge Philip Padovano	1996-2017
Judge L. Clayton Roberts	2007-2015		Gov. Charlie Crist
Judge Bradford Thomas	2005-1/2019
Judge James Wolf	1990-2017
Judge T. Kent Wetherell	2009-2017
Judge Lori S. Rowe	2009-2017		Gov. Charlie Crist
Judge Simone Marstiller	2010-1/2019		Gov. Charlie Crist
Judge Ronald V. Swanson	2011-1/2019		Gov. Rick Scott
Judge Stephanie Williams Ray	2011-1/2019		Gov. Rick Scott
Judge Scott D. Makar	2012-2015		Gov. Rick Scott

See also

• Florida Second District Court of Appeal
• Florida Third District Court of Appeal
• Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal
• Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal

References

2012

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Judge	Incumbency	Retention vote	Retention Vote %
ThomasBradford Thomas   A	Yes	813,714	64.5%A
SwansonRonald V. Swanson   A	Yes	821,139	64.9%A
MarstillerSimone Marstiller   A	Yes	785,397	61.7%A
RayStephanie Williams Ray   A	Yes	837,709	66.1%A