A civil appeal in Florida follows a fixed sequence, with deadlines set by the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure. This page walks through an appeal from a final order of a circuit or county court to a District Court of Appeal, and notes the differences for administrative, nonfinal, and federal appeals. It is general information, not legal advice; the rules that apply to your case depend on its facts, and the periods below are those in the rules in force on October 1, 2026.
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1. The order is rendered
An order is rendered when the signed, written order is filed with the clerk of the trial court. That date, not the date of the hearing or of a letter from the judge, starts the appeal clock. A timely and authorized motion for new trial, rehearing, or to alter or amend the judgment, directed to the final order, postpones rendition until the motion is withdrawn or decided; a motion for rehearing of a nonfinal order does not.
2. The notice of appeal: 30 days
The notice of appeal must be filed with the clerk of the trial court within 30 days of rendition. In an appeal from a state agency or the Division of Administrative Hearings, the notice is filed with the clerk of the agency or tribunal within 30 days, with a copy and the filing fee to the appellate court. The time cannot be extended by any court; a notice filed even one day late is too late.
Some orders can be appealed before the case is over: the nonfinal orders listed in rule 9.130, such as orders on venue, injunctions, personal jurisdiction, immediate possession of property, certain family-law rulings, class certification, immunity, and arbitration, are appealed within 30 days. Other nonfinal orders can be reviewed before the end of the case only by a petition for an extraordinary writ, usually certiorari, filed directly in the appellate court within 30 days.
3. The record: the first two months
Within 10 days of filing the notice, the appellant designates the parts of the proceedings to be transcribed. The clerk of the trial court prepares the record and serves its index within 50 days of the notice, and transmits the record to the appellate court within 60 days.
4. The briefs: 70, 30, and 30 days
The appellant’s initial brief is due 70 days after the notice of appeal. The appellee’s answer brief is due 30 days after the initial brief is served, and the appellant’s reply brief, if any, 30 days after the answer brief. In an appeal of a nonfinal order, the initial brief is due 20 days after the notice. Initial and answer briefs are limited to 13,000 words and reply briefs to 4,000, and the argument on each issue must cite the place in the record where the issue was preserved.
5. Oral argument, if the court grants it
There is no right to oral argument. A party asks for it in a separate request served no later than 15 days after the last brief is due, and the court decides. When argument is held, each side has 20 minutes unless the court orders otherwise.
6. The decision
The court’s time standard is a decision within 180 days of oral argument, or of the case’s submission to the panel if there is no argument; that is a target the courts set for themselves, not a deadline. The court may affirm, often without a written opinion (a “per curiam affirmance”), reverse, reverse in part, or send the case back to the trial court with directions.
7. Rehearing: 15 days
Within 15 days of the decision, a party may move for rehearing, clarification, certification of a question, or a written opinion. A motion for rehearing must state the points of law or fact the court overlooked or misapprehended; it may not raise new issues.
8. The mandate: 15 days
The mandate, which returns the case to the trial court and makes the decision effective, issues 15 days after the decision unless the court orders otherwise. A timely motion for rehearing, clarification, certification, or a written opinion extends that until 15 days after the motion is decided.
9. Further review
Review of a District Court of Appeal decision in the Florida Supreme Court is, with one exception, discretionary and limited to certain decisions, such as those that expressly construe a provision of the state or federal constitution or expressly and directly conflict with another appellate decision. (The exception: a decision declaring a state statute or a provision of the state constitution invalid may be appealed to the Supreme Court as of right.) The party seeking review files a notice within 30 days of the decision and a brief on jurisdiction within 10 days after that; the other side has 30 days to respond, and no reply is permitted. A petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, available when a federal question was decided, is due 90 days after the last state-court decision.
Appeals from administrative rulings and from county court
Final orders of state agencies and of administrative law judges at the Division of Administrative Hearings are appealed to a District Court of Appeal, in the district where the agency has its headquarters or where a party resides. The notice of appeal is filed with the clerk of the agency within 30 days of rendition, with a copy and the filing fee to the appellate court. The record is the record made before the agency, and the briefs follow the same 70-, 30- and 30-day schedule. Nonfinal agency action is reviewed by a petition filed in the appellate court within 30 days. When a state agency appeals, the usual automatic stay for public bodies does not apply in Administrative Procedure Act cases.
Decisions of local boards and commissions that are not under the Administrative Procedure Act, such as a county or city commission’s decision on a rezoning, site plan, or permit, or a local board’s ruling in a quasi-judicial hearing, are not appealed. They are reviewed by a petition for certiorari filed in the circuit court within 30 days, unless a statute provides for an appeal, as it does for local code enforcement boards. The circuit court asks only whether the board gave due process, applied the correct law, and had competent, substantial evidence for its decision. The circuit court’s decision can then be reviewed by the District Court of Appeal only by a second petition for certiorari, on a still narrower standard, so the hearing before the local board is the one that counts.
Appeals from county court go to the District Courts of Appeal, not the circuit court. Since January 1, 2021, the circuit courts’ appellate jurisdiction has been limited to appeals from local code enforcement boards and the few other reviews a statute expressly gives them, so a county court judgment, whatever the amount, is appealed on the same 30-day, record, and briefing schedule as a circuit court judgment.
What happens to the judgment while the appeal is pending
Filing an appeal does not by itself stop the other side from collecting a judgment. A party seeking a stay first asks the trial court, which may condition the stay on a bond. A judgment solely for money is stayed automatically, without a motion, when the appellant posts a good and sufficient bond equal to the judgment plus twice the statutory rate of interest in effect on the date the judgment is filed. When the State or a public body appeals, the notice itself operates as a stay in most cases.
Federal appeals
In the federal courts, the notice of appeal is due 30 days after entry of the judgment or order, or 60 days if the United States, a federal agency, or a federal officer or employee sued in connection with official duties is a party. The appellant’s brief is due 40 days after the record is filed (or, in the Eleventh Circuit, deemed filed), the appellee’s 30 days after the appellant’s brief is served, and the reply 21 days after that. Oral argument must be allowed unless a panel of three judges unanimously agrees it is not needed.
To discuss an appeal anywhere in Florida, call 850-270-1178 or send us a message from the Contact Us page.