Third Judicial Circuit: Transfer to a Veterans Treatment Court (Columbia and Suwannee County cases)

Florida lets each circuit's chief judge establish a Military Veterans and Servicemembers Court Program under section 394.47891; see the Florida entry. The Third Judicial Circuit (Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor Counties) has not. Its Administrative Order 2018-004, "In Re: Military Veterans and Service Members Court", signed in Columbia County on April 20, 2018, records that "the Third Judicial Circuit does not currently have a Veteran Treatment Court but certainly has veterans who could benefit from participation in a Veteran Treatment Court". What it orders. "Cases in which the defendant meets the necessary criteria to qualify for placement in a Veteran Treatment Court but cannot participate in such a court because the Third Judicial Circuit does not have one may motion to transfer his or her case to a circuit and county in which such a court exists." The judge presiding over the criminal case decides whether the transfer is eligible and appropriate, and the receiving court must agree to accept the case; the transfer rests on section 910.035(5). How to use it. Ask defence counsel to file the motion and to find a receiving veterans court; the order's original is with the Clerk of Court in Columbia County. The order was rechecked on 2026-10-17 for Suwannee County and stands unchanged; the circuit's site now answers 403 to plain requests and was read in a visible Chrome window.