Rule Stack & Effective Dates
the act date picks the lawRules are versioned, and the date of YOUR act — serving, filing, responding — selects which edition governs, never today's date. This tool shows the layered authority stack for your forum and date, which amendment duties are in force, what's coming but not yet law, and how removal to federal court swaps the whole stack.
Governing editions for 2026-07-11
✓ Florida Rules of Civil Procedure — 2026-04-01 edition
Governs this act (effective 2026-04-01). Includes the RFA 30-including-subparts limit and the 1.350/1.370 all-party-service changes. Acts before this date were governed by the prior edition — verify historical text if it matters.
SC2024-0779 amendments; corpus-verified 04-01-26 Bar edition
✓ Florida Rules of General Practice & Judicial Administration — 2026-07-01 edition
Governs this act (effective 2026-07-01). The 2.515 citation-verification duty is gated separately at 2026-06-15 — see the amendment gates.
Edition date per the Part-2 authority registry; the corpus-verified 2.515(d)(2) amendment (SC2026-0673) took effect earlier, 2026-06-15
⏳ Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure — SC2025-0241 amendments — NOT YET LAW for this act
Stored, flagged, NOT applied: effective 2026-09-01, and this act is dated 2026-07-11. The pre-amendment rules govern this act. FUTURE-EFFECTIVE. Stored and flagged; applied only on/after 2026-09-01 and only to acts its transition language covers — verify before use.
Amendment duties keyed to your date
● IN FORCE — Citation-verification certification (2.515(d)(2))
IN FORCE for this act (filing on/after 2026-06-15). Every Florida filing certifies that the legal authorities cited exist and are accurately cited; a sanctions provision backs it. Verify every citation against the corpus/official source before export.
Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.515 (SC2026-0673), eff. 2026-06-15 — corpus-verified
● IN FORCE — All-party service for production requests and admissions
IN FORCE for this act (service on/after 2026-04-01). Rule 1.350 and 1.370 papers are served on ALL parties, not only the responding party.
SC2024-0779 amendments, eff. 2026-04-01 — corpus-verified
● IN FORCE — Requests for admission capped at 30 including subparts
IN FORCE for this act (service on/after 2026-04-01). An RFA set over 30 including subparts needs court permission or a valid variance — the validator counts subparts conservatively.
Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.370 (SC2024-0779), eff. 2026-04-01 — corpus-verified; enforced by the studio validators
The 9-layer authority stack
Higher layers control. A lower layer departing from a higher one is surfaced with both texts — never silently applied, never silently ignored.
| 1 | Constitution | Art. V, Fla. Const. (state judicial power); U.S. Const. art. III + due process floors. | Nothing below varies it. |
| 2 | Statute | Jurisdiction/venue chapters, the evidence code (ch. 90 privileges), substantive gates (§ 768.72), UIDDA § 92.251. | Rules govern procedure; statutes govern substance — a procedural rule cannot enlarge substantive rights. |
| 3 | Procedural rules | The governing civil-procedure edition for this act date (see the temporal resolution). | Varied below only where the rule itself grants variance authority. |
| 4 | Specialized rules | Small claims (discovery NOT automatic — Rule 7.020 invocation required), probate, family — when the case type invokes them. | The specialized set displaces the general rule only within its own scope. |
| 5 | Local rules | Circuit local rules; federal district local rules (the resolved LR edition). | Must be consistent with the rules above; a local rule cannot abrogate a state/federal rule. |
| 6 | Administrative orders | Supreme Court AOSCs; chief-judge circuit administrative orders (divisions, case management). | Bind within their scope; still subordinate to the rules. |
| 7 | Assigned-judge procedures | Division/judge standing orders and preference sheets — REAL constraints on practice. | A judge preference is NOT law: it cannot override a rule. Follow it where lawful; flag it where it purports to bar what a rule guarantees. |
| 8 | Case-management order | This matter's CMO/scheduling order: track, deadlines, discovery cutoffs. | A court order may vary rule DEFAULTS where the rules grant case-management authority — the order controls the schedule. |
| 9 | Stipulation | Party agreements: ESI protocol, extensions the rules let parties grant, clawback terms. | Varies only what the rules permit parties to vary (e.g., Fed. R. Civ. P. 29's stipulation authority has exceptions for court-set dates). Court-controlled deadlines do NOT move by private agreement. |
Test a lower-layer departure
Enter a judge procedure, CMO term, or stipulation — the engine surfaces any conflict with the rule-layer defaults.
The removal / remand switch
A demo matter commenced in Florida on 2026-01-05. Add a removal (and optionally a remand) — then the act date above resolves against whichever forum held the case on that day. History is preserved either way.
TrialVector is software, not a law firm — legal information, not legal advice, and nothing you enter leaves your browser. Effective dates carry provenance and amendments carry transition notes because transition language differs; verify an edition question that matters with the official source. Deadlines live in the Deadline Engine; the aggression governor lives in the Escalation Zone.