Florida Florida Statutes

§ 44.201 — Citizen Dispute Settlement Centers; establishment; operation; confidentiality

FS § 44.201Ch. 44

Statute text

(1)The chief judge of a judicial circuit, after consultation with the board of county commissioners of a county or with two or more boards of county commissioners of counties within the judicial circuit, may establish a Citizen Dispute Settlement Center for such county or counties, with the approval of the Chief Justice. (2)(a) Each Citizen Dispute Settlement Center shall be administered in accordance with rules adopted by a council composed of at least seven members. The chief judge of the judicial circuit shall serve as chair of the council and shall appoint the other members of the council. The membership of the council shall include a representative of the state attorney, each sheriff, a county court judge, and each board of county commissioners within the geographical jurisdiction of the center. In addition, council membership shall include two members of the general public who are not representatives of such officers or boards. The membership of the council also may include other interested persons.

(b)The council shall establish qualifications for and appoint a director of the center. The director shall administer the operations of the center.

(c)A council may seek and accept contributions from counties and municipalities within the geographical jurisdiction of the Citizen Dispute Settlement Center and from agencies of the Federal Government, private sources, and other available funds and may expend such funds to carry out the purposes of this section.

(3)The Citizen Dispute Settlement Center, subject to the approval of the council and the Chief Justice, shall formulate and implement a plan for creating an informal forum for the mediation and settlement of disputes. Such plan shall prescribe:(a) Objectives and purposes of the center;

(b)Procedures for filing complaints with the center and for scheduling informal mediation sessions with the parties to a complaint;

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Legislative history

s. 2, ch. 85-228; s. 16, ch. 90-360; s. 263, ch. 95-147; s. 19, ch. 96-406; s. 3, ch. 2004-291DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">