---
type: "Bill"
title: "State Courts System"
description: "State Courts System; Revising the availability of judges to require at least one circuit judge in each circuit to be available for hearings with limited notice; revising the duty of the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation to provide an annual budget request to be pursuant to specified provisions; deleting the per diem cap for arbitrators who participate in court-ordered, nonbinding arbitration; authorizing judges to authenticate a jurat, or certificate of proof or acknowledgment, by affixing their signature and printing their name, title, and court, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2025"
identifier: "SB 538"
citation: "Florida SB 538 (2025)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["domestic relations", "evidence", "judicial branch"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2025-163"
primary_sponsors: ["Bradley"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 32
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2025-02-06"
last_action: "2025-06-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e7f1afcd-339e-4487-b8ff-a1af972051e0"
source_url: "https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/538/ByCategory"
source_hash: "ab214e431867e96da6834ee78dffdf77c180568e509dd82de49990619ae12842"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-fl"]
---

# Florida SB 538 (2025) — State Courts System

State Courts System; Revising the availability of judges to require at least one circuit judge in each circuit to be available for hearings with limited notice; revising the duty of the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation to provide an annual budget request to be pursuant to specified provisions; deleting the per diem cap for arbitrators who participate in court-ordered, nonbinding arbitration; authorizing judges to authenticate a jurat, or certificate of proof or acknowledgment, by affixing their signature and printing their name, title, and court, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2025-163.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **S 538 Filed** (filed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/538/BillText/Filed/HTML)
2. **S 538 c1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/538/BillText/c1/HTML)
3. **S 538 er** (enrolled) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/538/BillText/er/HTML)

## Votes

- Favorable with Committee Substitute — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Third Reading — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage, Third Reading — **115–0** (pass) · lower
- Favorable — **24–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable — **11–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice — primary (organization)
- Bradley — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-02-06** Filed `filing`
- **2025-02-20** Referred to Judiciary; Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice; Rules `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-27** On Committee agenda-- Judiciary, 03/04/25, 4:00 pm, 110 Senate Building
- **2025-03-04** Favorable by Judiciary; YEAS 11 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-04** Introduced `introduction`
- **2025-03-05** Now in Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice
- **2025-03-13** On Committee agenda-- Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice, 03/18/25, 1:00 pm, 37 Senate Building
- **2025-03-18** CS by Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice; YEAS 5 NAYS 0
- **2025-03-20** Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
- **2025-03-20** Now in Rules
- **2025-03-21** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 03/26/25, 9:00 am, 412 Knott Building
- **2025-03-26** Favorable by- Rules; YEAS 24 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-26** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2025-03-26** CS by Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice read 1st time
- **2025-04-01** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 04/03/25
- **2025-04-03** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2025-04-03** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2025-04-03** CS passed; YEAS 37 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2025-04-03** Immediately certified
- **2025-04-03** In Messages
- **2025-04-28** Bill referred to House Calendar
- **2025-04-28** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (4/29/2025)
- **2025-04-28** 1st Reading (Committee Substitute 1) `reading-1`
- **2025-04-29** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2025-04-29** Placed on 3rd reading `reading-3`
- **2025-04-29** Added to Third Reading Calendar
- **2025-04-29** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2025-04-29** CS passed; YEAS 115, NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2025-04-29** Ordered enrolled `enrolled`
- **2025-06-18** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2025-06-20** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2025-06-23** Chapter No. 2025-163

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e7f1afcd-339e-4487-b8ff-a1af972051e0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).