FLORIDA RESEARCH

Florida Case Law Search: Plain-English Florida Case Law Research With Cited, On-Point Opinions

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Ask a Florida question the way you would ask a colleague, and get back Florida Supreme Court and District Court of Appeal opinions with the holding in plain language and a still-good-law signal.

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Last updated July 2026 · US firms · Research tool, not legal advice

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Reading opinions

Finding the authorities that answer your question...

Controlling statute

The controlling statute is surfaced alongside the case law so you read the code and the precedents together.

Plain-English answer

Research memo

Question
Short answer
Authorities

Casesearch shows you the sources. Always read the full opinion and verify citations before you rely on them.

The short answer

Florida case law search means finding the opinions of the Florida Supreme Court and the six District Courts of Appeal that control your issue. Since 1948 Florida has had no separate official reporter, so every appellate opinion is cited to West's Southern Reporter, now in its third series (So.3d). A decision of any District Court of Appeal binds every trial court in the state unless another district has ruled the other way, a rule from Pardo v. State, 596 So.2d 665 (Fla. 1992), so identifying the controlling district is the first job in any Florida search.

District Courts of Appeal since January 1, 2023

judicial circuits with circuit courts

So.3d

the reporter for all Florida appellate opinions

Pardo

makes a DCA opinion binding statewide absent conflict

Side by side

Where Florida opinions are published, and what binds you

Florida added a Sixth District Court of Appeal on January 1, 2023 and redrew the map, so an older opinion may have come from a district that no longer covers the county you are researching. The precedent still stands; only the geography moved.

Court	What it decides	Reporter	Precedential weight
Supreme Court of Florida	Death penalty appeals, bond validation, discretionary conflict review, certified questions	So.3d (Fla.)	Binding on every Florida court
District Courts of Appeal, six districts	Most appeals from circuit courts and final agency action	So.3d (Fla. Dist. Ct. App.)	A written opinion binds all trial courts statewide absent an inter-district conflict
Circuit courts, 20 circuits	Felonies, larger civil cases, family, probate, appeals from county court	Not reported	No precedential value
County courts	Misdemeanors, civil disputes up to the jurisdictional limit, small claims	Not reported	No precedential value
Eleventh Circuit and federal district courts	Federal questions and diversity cases applying Florida law	F.4th, F.Supp.3d	Persuasive only in state court on state law

Casesearch is a research accelerator, not legal advice. Confirm the district and read the opinion before you cite it.

How do I search Florida case law?

Start with the issue and the district, not a string of keywords. Type the actual question with the procedural posture in it: "can a Florida landlord keep a security deposit for normal wear and tear under section 83.49", not "83.49 deposit". Plain-English search reads the whole question, including the statute and the setting, and returns the opinions that answer it rather than every case that happens to mention the number.

Then find the controlling district. Because a District Court of Appeal opinion binds every trial court in Florida when no other district disagrees, a Fourth District opinion can control a case in Miami even though Miami sits in the Third District, right up until the Third District issues a conflicting opinion of its own. When two districts split, the trial court follows the decision of the district it sits in, and the split is what gives the Supreme Court conflict jurisdiction to settle the question.

Describe the issue in a full sentence

Include the statute section, the parties, and the procedural stage so the search has real context.

Identify the controlling district

Find your circuit, then the District Court of Appeal that reviews it, and read that district first.

Watch for a per curiam affirmance

A one-line PCA with no opinion decides the case but sets no precedent you can cite.

Read the passage you will rely on

Summaries triage results. The opinion is what you cite.

What does a So.3d citation mean in Florida?

Florida stopped publishing its own official reports in 1948, so there is no Fla.3d or Fla.App.3d volume to find. Every reported Florida appellate opinion since then lives in the Southern Reporter, published by West, currently in its third series and abbreviated So.3d. The court name goes in the parenthetical instead of the reporter, which is how you tell a Supreme Court case from a District Court of Appeal case at a glance.

A Supreme Court cite reads Bush v. Schiavo, 885 So.2d 321 (Fla. 2004): volume 885, page 321, decided by the Supreme Court of Florida in 2004. A District Court of Appeal cite adds the district, for example 250 So.3d 750 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018), telling you it came from the Fourth District. Getting the district into the parenthetical is not optional in Florida, because the district is what tells a reader whether the opinion binds the court you are in.

Supreme Court of Florida

So.3d with (Fla. year). Earlier opinions run back through So.2d and So.

District Court of Appeal

So.3d with the district in the parenthetical, for example (Fla. 2d DCA year).

Pinpoint pages

Cite the exact page for every proposition, not just the first page of the opinion.

Per curiam affirmed

A citation to a PCA is a citation to a result, not to reasoning you can rely on.

Are Florida District Court of Appeal decisions binding statewide?

Yes, with one condition. In Pardo v. State, 596 So.2d 665 (Fla. 1992), the Florida Supreme Court held that in the absence of interdistrict conflict, a District Court of Appeal decision is binding on all Florida trial courts, not just those in that district. So a single published DCA opinion sets the law for the whole state until another district disagrees.

The condition matters because Florida has six districts that do not always agree. When two of them reach opposite results on the same question, a trial court is bound by the decision of the district it sits within, and the conflict becomes the Supreme Court's ground for taking the case. Before you rely on a DCA opinion, check whether another district has gone the other way, because a conflict quietly changes which opinion controls your court.

The 2023 redistricting adds a wrinkle worth knowing. When the Sixth District Court of Appeal opened on January 1, 2023, several counties moved between districts. An opinion issued before the change still binds under Pardo, but the district that will hear your next appeal from that county may be a different one than the caption of the old case suggests. Confirm the current district for your county rather than assuming it from an older opinion.

How do I check whether a Florida case is still good law?

Three things can undo a Florida case. The Supreme Court can quash or disapprove a District Court of Appeal decision, often after taking it on conflict jurisdiction. The Legislature can supersede a holding by amending the statute, which is frequent in landlord tenant, PIP insurance, and construction defect law where the statutes change on a regular cycle. Or a later opinion from the same or another district can recede from or distinguish the case, narrowing it without formally overruling it.

A treatment signal answers the case-history questions: has any later court quashed, disapproved, receded from, distinguished, or followed this opinion. The statutory question needs a second step, because a Florida case interpreting a statute that the Legislature rewrote last session can be perfectly sound about language that no longer exists. Read the current text of the statute alongside the case history whenever the holding turns on the words of the statute.

Where can I find Florida case law online?

The official opinions are free. The Florida Supreme Court and each District Court of Appeal post their opinions on the state courts website, usually the day they are released, and CourtListener and Google Scholar carry the same opinions in So.3d with full-text search. What the free sources do not give you is a citator, a plain-language holding, or a fast read on whether a later district receded from the case, which is why they work for pulling an opinion you already have a cite for and struggle when you are trying to find the controlling one.

The paid tier splits by how much library you need. Westlaw and Lexis carry the headnote systems and the KeyCite and Shepard's citators, and for deep Florida appellate work that treatment depth is hard to match. For the everyday job, finding the controlling District Court of Appeal opinion on a discrete Florida issue, reading the holding, and confirming no district has receded from it, a self-serve research tool covers the work at a fraction of a full seat. We compare the tiers in the legal research software guide.

Frequently asked

Questions buyers ask about florida case law search

How do I search Florida case law?

Describe your issue as a full question, including the statute section and the procedural posture, then read the controlling district first. Find your judicial circuit, identify the District Court of Appeal that reviews it, and start there, because a written DCA opinion binds all Florida trial courts statewide unless another district has ruled the other way.

How many District Courts of Appeal does Florida have?

Six. Florida added a Sixth District Court of Appeal, headquartered in Lakeland, on January 1, 2023, its first new appellate court in decades, and redrew the boundaries of several existing districts at the same time. Each district reviews appeals from the circuit courts within its territory, and its written opinions can bind trial courts statewide.

Are Florida DCA decisions binding on trial courts statewide?

Yes, absent conflict. Under Pardo v. State, 596 So.2d 665 (Fla. 1992), a District Court of Appeal decision binds every Florida trial court, not only those in that district, unless another district has issued a conflicting opinion. When districts split, a trial court follows the decision of the district it sits in, and the conflict gives the Supreme Court jurisdiction to resolve it.

What does So.3d mean in a Florida citation?

So.3d is the third series of West's Southern Reporter, where all reported Florida appellate opinions are published. Florida has had no separate official reporter since 1948, so a cite like 250 So.3d 750 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018) identifies the volume, page, court, and year, with the district shown in the parenthetical rather than in the reporter name.

What is a per curiam affirmance in Florida?

A per curiam affirmance, or PCA, is a District Court of Appeal decision that affirms the lower court without a written opinion, often as a single line. It decides the case for the parties but sets no precedent and cannot be cited as authority, and because it gives no reasons it generally cannot support Supreme Court conflict review either.

Keep reading

California case law search Rule 8.1115, depublication, and the Auto Equity statewide rule. Texas case law search Two courts of last resort, fifteen courts of appeals, and S.W.3d. New York case law search Why the Supreme Court is the trial court and A.D.3d binds statewide. Case law search engine How plain-English search returns cited holdings. Check if a case is still good law The treatment check that catches quashed opinions and superseding statutes. How to read a legal citation Reporters, pinpoints, parentheticals, and subsequent history. Legal research software The four kinds of research tool and how to choose between them. Legal research for solo attorneys Running a research workflow without a library budget.

Casesearch is a legal research tool, not legal advice. Always read the full opinion and verify citations before relying on them.

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Search Florida case law in plain English

Ask your Florida question with the district in mind and read the controlling So.3d opinions, the holdings, and the treatment signal for yourself. A research tool, not legal advice.