How the Courts desk reads an opinion

The Florida Supreme Court publishes its opinions on its website, where each one can be read in full the day it is released.¹ The Courts desk reads every opinion it reports from beginning to end, and in the same order each time.

What the desk looks for

First, the caption and the case number: who the parties are and which court the case came from. Most cases reach the Supreme Court from one of the district courts of appeal, though some, such as death penalty appeals, come to it directly.

Second, the disposition, usually in the final paragraphs: whether the court affirmed, reversed, quashed or approved the decision under review, and whether it sent the case back for further proceedings. That is the result, and it goes in the first sentence of the story.

Third, the reasoning: the question the court said it was answering and the rule it announced. An opinion signed by one justice speaks for the justices who joined it; a per curiam opinion speaks for the court without naming an author. Concurring and dissenting opinions are reported for what they add, with the justices who wrote them named.

What an opinion is not

A newly released opinion is not always final. Florida opinions carry a notice that they are not final until the time to file a motion for rehearing has passed and, if one is filed, it has been decided. The desk reports that status, and reports again if the court changes its opinion on rehearing.¹

The desk also keeps to what the opinion decides. A ruling on a narrow procedural question is reported as that, not as a decision on the larger dispute behind it.