Second Judicial Circuit: Moving a Gadsden County Case to the Leon County Veterans Treatment Court

Section 394.47891 lets a court with criminal jurisdiction run a veterans treatment court program; see the Florida entry. The Second Judicial Circuit covers Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla Counties, and its only veterans court is the Leon County Veterans Treatment Court, established in 2015 (Administrative Orders 2015-07 and 2016-05). Nothing on the circuit's site sets up one in Gadsden County. How a Gadsden case gets there. Section 910.035(5) lets a person eligible for a problem-solving court have the case moved to another county if the person agrees and the representatives of both courts agree. The circuit posts the form: an "Agreed Order to Transfer" by which the trial court in the county where the charge arose directs its Clerk to send the case "to 2nd Judicial Circuit in and for Leon County", with the defendant agreeing to the Leon County VTC contract. (On the circuit's forms page the "Transfer In" and "Transfer Out" links are swapped: the file named for in-county transfer is the one that moves a case into Leon.) Ask defence counsel to file it after the Leon team accepts the veteran. The court's criteria. The circuit's page asks for a veteran under section 1.01 or a servicemember under section 250.01 "who has an Honorable or General discharge from military service", a documented military-related mental health diagnosis (PTSD, traumatic brain injury, a substance abuse disorder or psychological problems), and no earlier enrolment in or rejection by the VTC. The programme runs twelve to eighteen months, twenty-four at most, with a dedicated judge, treatment largely through the VA, testing, a peer mentor and supervision by a pretrial or probation officer. Narrower than the statute. As rewritten in 2026 (chapters 2026-128 and 2026-139, which apply at once to programmes funded through the state courts' problem-solving court appropriation and to every other programme from July 1, 2027), section 394.47891 defines a veteran as "a person who has served in the military", admits anyone with a service-related condition or military sexual trauma whose participation is in the interest of justice, treats an earlier programme as one factor to weigh, and reserves only dishonorably discharged veterans to the chief judge and state attorney. A veteran with an other-than-honorable discharge or an earlier VTC enrolment should still ask. Who to call. Veterans Treatment Court Coordinator, Office of the Court Administrator, (850) 606-4450; referrals to [email protected].