Who decides Florida's family cases?
In Florida, a judge can be assigned to hear divorce, custody and domestic violence cases without having practiced family law, and no rule we could find requires family-law or domestic violence training first. We looked at the public record for the judges doing this work in seven of the state's largest circuits.
Florida, circuit by circuit
Shading shows the share of each circuit's current family and domestic violence judges whose public biographies, appointment announcements and coverage mention no family-law practice before the bench. Darker means fewer mentions. Select a circuit for its numbers.
Florida already wrote the fix
The training families would expect isn't a new idea here. The state's highest court approved it a generation ago, and it was never made binding.
The Florida Supreme Court approves its Family Court Steering Committee's recommendation and sends it to the Florida Court Education Council to develop courses.
"Judges who are assigned to the family division for the first time ... should receive mandatory training in the fundamentals of family law, domestic violence, juvenile dependency, and juvenile delinquency before assuming the assignment or within 60 days after assuming the assignment."
In re Report of the Family Court Steering Committee, 794 So. 2d 518 (Fla. 2001). No rule or order making it enforceable has been found.
Judges complete 30 hours of approved education every three years on topics they choose, plus the Florida Judicial College when they start at a new court level (Rule 2.320). Chief judges rotate judges into family divisions (Rule 2.215(b)(4)), with no family-law experience required.
State law tells the Court Education Council to offer domestic violence instruction "on a periodic and timely basis" (s. 25.385), without requiring judges to complete it before hearing those cases.
Congress passes Kayden's Law, offering states extra federal funding when they adopt child-safety protections that include training judges on abuse, coercive control and trauma. Florida hasn't adopted it.
A bill adding coercive control to the domestic violence definition dies in committee; the 2026 domestic violence law passes with no judicial training provision.
What other states require
Three things a family would hope every state gets right: a judge trained for family cases, a parenting plan form that gives every parent the same starting point, and some way to know a family lawyer is qualified and to hold them to account. Switch the map between them, or look at all three together. Select a state for details.
How other states check on their judges
Training is only half of it. The other half is whether anyone ever finds out how a judge is actually doing once they're on the bench, and in Florida the honest answer is that nobody outside the courthouse really does. Sixteen states, along with Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, run official judicial performance evaluations, and a few of them have built something worth borrowing.
They ask the people who were in the room
Surveys go to lawyers, but also to litigants, jurors, crime victims, court staff, interpreters and social services workers, with questions like whether the judge "uses language that everyone can understand." Commissions have more non-lawyers than lawyers, and every judge gets a public finding, in plain words, in the voter guide that goes to each household.
Trained citizens watch the courtroom
Volunteers from all walks of life observe judges and rate what people without lawyers feel most: whether the judge was neutral, whether people were treated with respect, and whether everyone got a real chance to be heard. The public can also send in comments about their own experience.
The results reach every voter
The Judicial Council surveys lawyers, police, child welfare workers, jurors and court staff, and also looks at discipline records and how often a judge is reversed on appeal. By law the findings are published at least 60 days before the election, with a page on every judge in the pamphlet mailed to each home.
Feedback the public never sees
The Florida Bar's program sends lawyers' evaluations only to the judge, and they stay confidential. A judicial misconduct complaint stays sealed unless formal charges are filed, which happens only a handful of times a year statewide. Some local bars run voluntary lawyer polls, and none of them asks the parents.
An evaluation measures how a courtroom is run, not whether a ruling was right, and in states that have them most judges meet the standard. The point is a judge who knows where they stand and a public that can see it, not removing anyone.
What would change this
Put the 2001 standard into law
Family-law and domestic violence training before, or within 60 days of, a judge's first family assignment, with coercive control and child trauma in the curriculum and Kayden's Law funding in view.
Ask about family experience
When a circuit seat is likely to rotate into a family division, ask candidates about family-law experience and their commitment to family and domestic violence training.
Tell families what training exists
Publish what family and domestic violence judges complete today, and what became of the 2001 recommendation. Signals & Structure has requested those records.
Evaluate trial judges in public
An independent commission that surveys lawyers, court staff and the parents who appear in family court, gives each judge a private development report, and publishes a plain summary before each election, with surveys run by an outside firm so lawyers can answer honestly.
Keep a record anyone can follow
When the person deciding a case may be learning family law on the job, a record that ties each statement to the document behind it does a lot of quiet work. This is general information, not legal advice about any case.
Stay with this
This map is going to keep changing, because the court records I've asked for will come back, more states will be checked again, and I'm building a way for parents to share what family court actually felt like from their side of the room. If you'd like to hear when any of that happens, you can leave your email, and I'll only write when there's something real to share.
Pass it along
If this would help someone working on family court reform, a reporter, or a legislator's office, please share it. Everything on the page is sourced, so anyone can check it.