The following is Not Legal Advice.
Do Not Rely on This Information. It may not be current or accurate. For legal advice, consult an attorney.
Statutes checked against the official text current through the 2026 session; decisions through September 2026. Rule text reflects the Florida Supreme Court’s amendments effective July 1, 2025. Bond and pretrial detention law in Florida has changed substantially and repeatedly since 2023 — confirm the current rule and statute before relying on anything here.
← Bond and Pretrial Release in Florida
Florida’s speedy trial rule was substantially rewritten by the Florida Supreme Court on its own motion. In re Amendments to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.191, No. SC2022-1123 (Fla. Mar. 13, 2025). The amendments took effect July 1, 2025, at 12:01 a.m., and a motion for rehearing did not alter that date.
What changed
| Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|
| Clock starts | Date of arrest / taken into custody | Date the defendant is formally charged |
| Recapture period | 10 days | 30 days |
| Recapture mandatory? | Contested in some situations | Mandatory in all situations before any remedy is given |
| Effect of discharge | With prejudice | Without prejudice, unless the constitutional speedy trial right was violated — then with prejudice |
| Demand calendar call | Trial set 5–45 days out | Trial set 5–60 days out |
The starting-point change reverses direction from Davis v. State, 286 So. 3d 170 (Fla. 2019), in which the Court had adopted formal arrest as the trigger.
The periods
| Misdemeanor, without demand | 90 days from formal charging |
| Felony, without demand | 175 days from formal charging |
| On a valid Demand for Speedy Trial | 60 days — filed as a separate pleading so titled and served on the prosecuting authority |
A person is entitled to the rule’s benefits whether in custody or at liberty on bail, recognizance, or other release conditions. Filing a valid demand ends the operation of the without-demand periods.
The remedy is a sequence, not a discharge
- The period expires. Nothing automatic happens.
- The defendant files a notice of expiration of speedy trial time.
- The court must hold a hearing on the notice within 5 days.
- Unless one of the reasons in subdivision (j) applies, the court orders the defendant brought to trial within 30 days. This recapture period is mandatory before any remedy will be given.
- Only if the defendant is not brought to trial within that 30-day window, through no fault of his own, is he forever discharged — and that discharge is without prejudice unless the constitutional right was violated.
Justice Labarga dissented, objecting that the changes place the start of the period “even further down the road,” that 10 days was sufficient recapture, and that a discharge with prejudice is the appropriate check on the State.
Because the rule-based clock now depends on charging, the deadlines in rule 3.134 carry more weight than before — and the constitutional speedy trial right, which is what converts a discharge into one with prejudice, is analyzed separately from the rule.