A county judge hearing residential landlord tenant cases under Chapter 83 has a habit of holding short 1-4 hr trials (eviction only or eviction and damages) concluded by issuing only a single Order Staying Final Judgment. Usually the Stay requires that a party must either move out (or move out and pay funds to the other party) before a time certain a few days later, but allowing the intended transferee to motion the Court for Final Judgment if the vacating party/payor does not comply in time. Note that this result is not a motion to determine rent outcome, but rather the result of an eviction trial. The Stay sometimes requires both parties to bear their own attorney fees. The judge considers his/her self to have such discretion to issue the Stay, and considers the Stay to be a nonfinal order because of the uncertainty related to having to issue a subsequent final judgment. The majority of the time parties comply with Stay terms by moving/paying. When an attorney is involved obviously fees become an issue, since the statute awards fees to prevailing party but the judge is not awarding them. What arguments might best be used in support of judges use of a Stay Order (a method to avoid both atty fees and recorded eviction judgments)? Conversely, what might be the best way to get fees? in an appeal to circuit (final or non-final order)? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Patrick Hogan Pat@HoganLegalServices.com

If there is no final order to appeal you may want to file a petition for writ of mandamus with the circuit court appellate division. You will probably have a faster turn around with the petition rather than a traditional appeal. Dennis A. Chen, Esq. Chen Law Firm, PA 5401 S. Kirkman Rd., Ste. 310 Orlando, Florida 32819 Tel: (407) 392-1872 Fax: 1-866-571-3421 dennis@chenlaw.net Bankruptcy * Civil Litigation * Landlord/Tenant * Personal Injury * Real Estate Litigation CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail, including any attachment, contains legally privileged and confidential information and is intended solely for the recipient. Should the intended recipient forward this message to any person or entity, that action could constitute a waiver of the attorney-client privilege. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is prohibited. If this communication was sent or received in error, please notify us by reply e-mail and delete the original message. On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Pat@hoganlegalservices.com < Pat@hoganlegalservices.com> wrote: > A county judge hearing residential landlord tenant cases under Chapter 83 > has a habit of holding short 1-4 hr trials (eviction only or eviction and > damages) concluded by issuing only a single Order Staying Final Judgment. > Usually the Stay requires that a party must either move out (or move out > and pay funds to the other party) before a time certain a few days later, > but allowing the intended transferee to motion the Court for Final Judgment > if the vacating party/payor does not comply in time. Note that this result > is not a motion to determine rent outcome, but rather the result of an > eviction trial. The Stay sometimes requires both parties to bear their own > attorney fees. > > The judge considers his/her self to have such discretion to issue the > Stay, and considers the Stay to be a nonfinal order because of the > uncertainty related to having to issue a subsequent final judgment. The > majority of the time parties comply with Stay terms by moving/paying. > > When an attorney is involved obviously fees become an issue, since the > statute awards fees to prevailing party but the judge is not awarding them. > > What arguments might best be used in support of judges use of a Stay Order > (a method to avoid both atty fees and recorded eviction judgments)? > > Conversely, what might be the best way to get fees? in an appeal to > circuit (final or non-final order)? > > Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. > > Patrick Hogan > Pat@HoganLegalServices.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > landten mailing list > landten@lists.flabarrpptl.org > http://mailman.fsr.com/mailman/listinfo/landten >