Fabienne E. Fahnestock

Circuit Judgepublished

SEVENTEENTH Judicial Circuit · Broward County · Circuit Civil — Div. 18

Division procedures — 1 requirement card(s)

Division procedures — published text (excerpt; full text at source)

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FABIENNE E. FAHNESTOCK
CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE
Seventeenth Judicial Circuit
of Florida
Katarzyna Zielinski, Judicial Assistant
Broward County Courthouse
Chamber WW-14125
Courtroom WW-14175
201 S.E. 6th Street #159
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301-3303
(954) 831-7336
div18@17th.flcourts.org
JUDGE FABIENNE E. FAHNESTOCK’S
PROCEDURES FOR CIVIL DIVISION 18
(Revised as of March 23, 2026)
**Please watch the 17th Judicial Circuit’s presentation regarding the recent amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure and new Case Management Orders HERE
Communications
Please use the following methods to communicate with Division 18:
Email: Div18@17th.flcourts.org
Hand Deliveries: WW14125
Mailing Address: Broward County Courthouse, Chambers WW14125
201 S.E. 6th Street
Fort Lauderdale FL, 33301
Zoom information:
https://17thflcourts.zoom.us/j/598494885
Meeting ID: 598 494 885
All participants must identify themselves by first and last name, and their video must be turned on during the hearing.
Any participants joining Zoom via phone numbers must mute or unmute themselves by press *6 on their phone.
Hearing Procedures
All hearings are to be set online using the 17th Circuit’s Case Management System (CMS). Unless otherwise ordered, uniform motion calendar hearings (“UMC”) set on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and all case management conferences (“CMC”) will be by video conference (Zoom). Zoom sign-on instructions are attached as Exhibit A. Please include the Zoom instructions in your Notice of Hearing. If your hearing is by Zoom, do not designate the courthouse address as the hearing location.
All UMC hearings set on a Thursday shall be in person only. Thursday in person UMC hearings may NOT be unilaterally set. If an interested party is not available to attend the hearing in person, the motion shall be reset for a zoom hearing on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
All trials and special set hearings shall be in person. Special set hearings may only be cancelled with the permission of the presiding judge.
The Court no longer accepts hard copies of motions and related papers UNLESS your hearing materials collectively exceed fifty (50) pages. All motions and related papers must be uploaded as Supporting Documents or delivered to chambers at least five (5) business days before the scheduled hearing. Instructions for uploading Supporting Documents are attached as Exhibit B. Instructions for hyperlinking case law are attached as Exhibit C. At a minimum, please “bookmark” your submissions.
Uniform Motion Calendar begins at 8:30 am. Cases will be called on a first come, first served basis. Please mute your microphone and turn on your video upon entry to the hearing. Unmute your microphone and turn on your video to speak. Your video must be turned on during your hearing. The microphone and video control settings are in the lower left corner of your screen.
Please do not email courtesy copies of motions, pleadings or case law unless instructed to do so by the Court.
Motions - Page and Other Limitations
Motion - Generally
Hearings
Scheduling a Case for Trial
Trial Evidence
Electronic Agreed Orders and Judgements
Exhibit A -Zoom Sign on Instructions
Exhibit B - Uploading Supporting Documents via CMS
Exhibit C - Hyperlinking Case Law & Supporting Documents
Exhibit D - Electronic Calendar Call Form
1. Motions - Page and Other Limitations. [Back]
(a) In a motion or other application for an order, the movant shall include a concise statement of the relief requested, a statement of the basis for the request and citation to legal authority in support of the request. Motions set on motion calendar shall not exceed five (5) pages and motions scheduled for special set hearing shall not exceed ten (10) pages. All motions and responses shall be double-spaced with margins not less than o

Civil Division 18 Procedures (17th Jud. Cir.); Local Rule 10A (parties responsible to know division procedures)official source ↗

Practice rules & preferences (1)

ported from the BenchPath card library

Judge-specific practice cards — page limits, proposed-order formats, hearing mechanics — with the verification metadata exactly as recorded in that system (never upgraded here).

Judge Fabienne E. Fahnestock — Division 18 procedures (Circuit Civil)

Divisional Instructions18 — Division 18 — Circuit Civilhigh confidence

Judge Fabienne E. Fahnestock — Division 18 (Circuit Civil), 17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County. Official division procedures, live-fetched and sha256-verified 2026-07-05 (sha256 f19a86871daf…).

Key requirements (verbatim excerpts from the published procedures):
• "(d) A motion requesting relief from the page limitation shall not exceed two (2) pages, shall not include any attachments, and shall specify what efforts have been made to comply with the page limitation and the length of the proposed filing."
• "Failure to comply with Rule 1.202, including the failure to include the certificate of conferral as set forth in 1.202(b) in the motion, may result in cancellation of the hearing on the motion."
• "Motions set on motion calendar shall not exceed five (5) pages and motions scheduled for special set hearing shall not exceed ten (10) pages."
• "The form attached as Exhibit D must be jointly completed by all parties and returned no later than 4:00 p.m. on calendar call."
• "Accordingly, within __ days of the date of this Order _____________ must retain an attorney to represent its interests in this case otherwise an order of dismissal or a default may be entered."
• "A response to a motion calendar matter shall not exceed three (3) pages and a response to a special set matter shall not exceed seven (7) pages."

Full procedures: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT1xYR9ueXpZbGBMvzCMuMueeuTgpegu54XLaXLh1yxZOmiwgtDQzb1WozsNw6gwjr63h8G2_MYpAa4/pub?embedded=true

17th Jud. Cir. (Broward), Division 18 Procedures — Judge Fabienne E. Fahnestock (official published division doc)official source ↗

Procedures, not predictions: TrialVector reports what the division requires — never what a judge will decide.