United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida

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• Judges

Northern District of Florida Eleventh Circuit Chief: Margaret Rodgers Judges: 4 Posts: 4 Vacancies: 0 Active judges Hinkle • Smoak • Walker Senior Judges Collier • Mickle • Paul • Stafford • Vinson Magistrate Judges Bodiford • Davis • Sherrill Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida is a United States district court.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida's vacancy warning level is currently set at green. There are no vacancies for the court.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Northern District of Florida (click for larger map)

The geographic jurisdiction of the Northern District of Florida consists of all the following counties in the northern part of the state of Florida.

There are four court divisions, each covering the following counties:

The Gainesville Division, covering Alachua, Dixie, Gilchrist, Lafayette and Levy Counties

The Panama City Division, covering Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington Counties

The Pensacola Division, covering Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton Counties

The Tallahassee Division, covering Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor and Wakulla Counties

The four courthouses in which it hears cases are Gainesville, Panama City, Pensacola, and Tallahassee.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Atlanta at the Elbert P. Tuttle Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The Northern District of Florida has original jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

Case load

Federal Court Case Load Statistics*

Year	Starting case load:	Cases filed:	Total cases:	Cases terminated:	Remaining cases:	Median time(Criminal)**:	Median time(Civil)**:	3 Year Civil cases#:	Vacant posts:##	Trials/Post
2010	1779	2044	3823	2017	1806	5.8	8.0	57(3.8%)	0	39
2009	1733	2091	3824	2062	1762	5.8	8.0	41(2.8%)	0	39
2008	1635	2079	3714	985	2729	5.6	7.7	45(3.1%)	0	44
2007	1669	2062	3731	2084	1647	5.1	7.5	38(2.8%)	0	49
2006	1477	2100	3577	1918	1659	5.0	7.6	58(4.3%)	.9	48

*All statistics are taken from the Official Federal Courts' Website and reflect the calendar year through September.    **Time in months from filing to completion. #This statistic includes cases which have been appealed in higher courts.    ##This is the total number of months that any all judicial posts had spent vacant that year.

Clerk's office

The Northern District of Florida has four separate courthouses with clerical contacts and directions for each. The offices are open five days a week, except holidays. The official clerk of court is Jessica J. Lyublanovits. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address	Mailing Address	Phone	Hours
Gainesville Division	United States Courthouse 401 SE First Ave. Rm 243 Gainesville, FL 32601		(352) 380-2400	8:30a.m. - 5p.m. et
Panama City Division	United States Courthouse 30 W. Government St. Panama City, Florida 32401		(850) 769-4556	8a.m. - 4:30p.m.
Pensacola Division	United States Courthouse 1 North Palafox St. Pensacola, Florida 32502		(850) 435-8440	8a.m. - 4:30p.m.
Tallahassee Division	United States Courthouse 111 N. Adams St. Tallahassee, Florida 32301-7730		(850) 521-3501	8:30a.m - 5:00p.m.

History

Court history

The District of Florida was established by Congress on March 3, 1845 with one post to cover the entire state. On February 23, 1847 Congress divided the district into the Northern District of Florida and the Southern District of Florida with one judicial post for each district. Over time 3 additional judicial posts were added for a total of 4 current posts.

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Northern District of Florida:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
March 3, 1845	5 Stat. 788	1
May 24, 1940	54 Stat. 219	2(Temporary)
c1947	Temporary expired	1
August 3, 1949	63 Stat. 493	2
March 18, 1966	80 Stat. 75	2 (1 New post, 1 Reassigned to Middle District of Florida)
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	3
December 1, 1990	104 Stat. 5089	4

Notable cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Opinions of the Northern District of Florida.

• EPA water rules  Judge(s):Robert Hinkle

Judge Hinkle on November 16, 2009 ordered a consent decree on the Environmental Protection Agency to come up with limits for freshwater pollution by October 14, 2010. Environmental advocacy groups in Florida sued the EPA to have the standards because of claims that freshwater lakes are being polluted by nitrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen. The judge found the State of Florida failed to enforce major provisions of the Clean Water Act of 1990 as indication of requiring the consent decree.

Federal courthouse

Major news

For new stories and other related material see Florida judicial news.

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

External links

• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida
• US Attorney's Office Northern District of Florida
• Opinions of the Northern District of Florida
• Judges of the Northern District of Florida

References

Northern District of Florida Eleventh Circuit Chief: Margaret Rodgers Judges: 4 Posts: 4 Vacancies: 0 Active judges Hinkle • Smoak • Walker Senior Judges Collier • Mickle • Paul • Stafford • Vinson Magistrate Judges Bodiford • Davis • Sherrill Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida has 4 posts and 0 vacancies. The current Chief Judge is Margaret Rodgers. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge Robert Hinkle	1951	Apalachicola, FL	Clinton	8/1/1996 - Present	2004 - 2009	William Stafford	Florida State U., B.A., 1972	Harvard School of Law, J.D., 1976
Judge John Smoak	1943	Columbus, GA	W. Bush	11/3/2005 - Present		Clyde Vinson	West Point, B.A., 1965	U. of Florida Law, J.D., 1972
Judge Margaret Rodgers	1964	Pensacola, FL	W. Bush	11/21/2003 - Present	2011 - Present	Lacey Collier	U. of West Florida, B.A., 1989	California Western Law, J.D., 1992
Judge Mark E. Walker			Obama	12/6/2012 - Present		Stephan Mickle	U. of Florida, B.A., 1989	U. of Florida Law, J.D., 1992

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida has 5 judges on senior status currently. This is a list of the current senior judges on the court:

Judge	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Senior	Bachelors	Law
Senior Judge Maurice Paul	Reagan	6/21/1982 - 7/31/1997	1993 - 1997	7/31/1997 - Present	University of Florida, B.A., 1954	University of Florida College of Law, LL.B., 1960
Senior Judge Clyde Roger Vinson	Reagan	10/5/1983 - 3/31/2005	1997 - 2004	3/31/2005 - Present	Naval Academy, B.A., 1962	Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D., 1971
Senior Judge Lacey Collier	H.W. Bush	11/18/1991 - 11/20/2003		11/20/2003 - Present	U.S. Naval Academy Post-Graduate School, B.A., 1970, University of West Florida, B.A., 1975	Florida State College of Law, J.D., 1977
Senior Judge William Stafford	Ford	5/14/1975 - 5/31/1996	1981 - 1993	5/31/1996 - Present	Temple University, B.A., 1953	Temple University, J.D., 1956
Senior judge Stephan Mickle	Clinton	5/22/1998 - 6/22/2011	2009-2011	6/22/2011 - Present	U. of Florida, B.A., 1965	U. of Florida, J.D., 1970

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge Charles Kahn	03/04/2011 - Present	Vanderbilt U., 1973	U. of Florida, J.D., 1977
Magistrate Judge Gary Jones	09/01/2010 - Present	Boston U., B.A., 1975	U. of Miami Law, J.D., 1981
Magistrate Judge Larry Bodiford
Magistrate Judge Gordon M. Davis
Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Timothy

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
George Carswell	1958-1969
Winston Arnow	1969 - 1981
Stephan Mickle	2009-2011
William Stafford	1981 - 1993
Clyde Roger Vinson	1997 - 2004
Maurice Paul	1993 - 1997
Robert Hinkle	2004 - 2009

In order to qualify for the office of Chief Judge in one of the federal courts, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as Chief Judge. A vacancy in the office of Chief Judge is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The Chief Judge serves for a term of seven years or until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position. Unlike the Chief Justice of the United States, a Chief Judge returns to active service after the expiration of his or her term and does not create a vacancy on the bench by the fact of his or her promotion. See 28 U.S.C. § 45.

These rules for Chief Judges in the federal judiciary have been in effect since October 1, 1982. The office of Chief Judge was created in 1948. Until August 6, 1959, the position was filled in each federal court by the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as Chief Judge. From then until 1982 it was filled by the senior such judge who had not turned 70.

Former judges

1. George Young
2. Isaac Hopkins Bronson
3. McQueen McIntosh
4. Philip Fraser
5. Thomas Settle
6. Charles Swayne
7. William Bostwick Sheppard
8. Augustus Long
9. Winston Arnow
10. George Carswell
11. Curtis Waller
12. George Whitehurst
13. Lynn Higby
14. David Middlebrooks
15. Dozier DeVane