Florida’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee issued an opinion clarifying the conditions under which judges may testify in court.

Acting July 23 in Opinion Number 2024-09, the advisory panel addressed two issues involving judges and their participation in court proceedings outside of their judicial duties, holding:

A judge may testify if duly served with a subpoena concerning the weight of the evidentiary burden applied in a prior case, provided the testimony is otherwise admissible. The decision clarifies that judges can be called upon to discuss the standards of evidence that were considered in previous rulings, as long as the testimony meets the admissibility criteria set by the court.