Miami-Dade Lawyer

About Arturo R. Alfonso, P.A.

How Legal Matters Work in Miami-Dade County

One circuit, several courthouses. Miami-Dade County is Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Divorce and other family cases are heard at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center, 175 NW First Avenue, in downtown Miami. The Clerk also runs branch locations closer to home: the South Dade Justice Center in Cutler Bay lists county court, small claims, landlord-tenant, and domestic violence matters, and the North Dade Justice Center, 15555 Biscayne Boulevard, takes domestic violence filings with extended hours. Bankruptcy is federal: Miami-Dade cases go to the Miami Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, 301 North Miami Avenue. A residential eviction is a county court case, filed with the Clerk under the summary procedure of Florida Statutes section 83.59; see landlord-tenant and eviction representation in Miami. Whether a divorce needs a court appearance at all is covered in our guide to going to court for a divorce.

Deed taxes are different here. Florida’s documentary stamp tax on a deed is 70 cents per $100 of the price in every county except Miami-Dade, where it is 60 cents per $100 plus a 45-cent surtax. The surtax is not due on a deed that transfers only a single-family dwelling (Florida Department of Revenue). How it fits with the other costs of a sale is covered in how much closing costs are in Florida.

Homestead depends on where you live. Florida’s homestead protection from forced sale covers up to one-half acre of contiguous land inside a municipality such as Miami, Coral Gables, or Cutler Bay, and up to 160 acres in unincorporated areas such as Kendall (Florida Constitution, Article X, section 4(a)(1)). See whether you could lose your house in bankruptcy.

The same line matters when an owner dies. Florida’s probate code defines protected homestead by that same constitutional provision (Florida Statutes section 731.201(33)), so the half-acre and 160-acre limits also shape what passes to the family as homestead after a death. Protected homestead is not an asset in the hands of the personal representative (section 733.608(1)), and a home owned as tenants by the entirety or with a right of survivorship is not protected homestead at all. For other property, a personal representative whose will gives no power of sale needs the court to authorize or confirm the sale before title passes (section 733.613(1)). Title companies usually ask how each of these was resolved before they will insure the buyer. See probate property sales in Miami.

City or unincorporated: who handles permits. Miami-Dade is made up of incorporated cities, towns, and villages, each with its own building official overseeing permits and inspections, and unincorporated communities such as Kendall, where Miami-Dade County handles buildings (properties whose folio number begins with 30). Before you buy, sell, or renovate, the permit and inspection history comes from that local office, not from the title records.

One place for the property records. Deeds, mortgages, liens, and judgments for property anywhere in the county are recorded in the Official Records kept by the County Recorder’s Office of the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, which accepts documents in person, by mail, or through approved eRecording vendors. A title search reads those records before a closing; see title search and title insurance in Miami. The same records are why a family deed should be recorded promptly: under Florida Statutes section 695.01(1), a deed that is not recorded is not good against creditors or later buyers for value who had no notice of it. See deed preparation and transfers in Miami.

A foreclosure sale date stays on the calendar. In a Miami-Dade foreclosure, the circuit court sets the sale date and the Clerk lists it on its online foreclosure sale calendar. Negotiating with the lender, including a short sale, does not take that date off by itself; it stays until it is canceled or reset through the court. If a sale date has been set on your home, keep it in front of you while you talk to the lender. See short sales in Miami and foreclosure defense in Miami.

Small claims, county court, or circuit court. Civil cases in Miami-Dade are filed with the Clerk, who says any action may be filed at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center downtown or at a district court location. The amount in dispute decides the court. The Clerk lists small claims for $8,000 or less, not counting interest, court costs, and attorney’s fees, and county civil court for more than $8,000 up to $50,000, which also hears tenant evictions. Larger claims and requests for an injunction go to the circuit court. That matters in a dispute with a condominium or homeowners’ association, where state law can require presuit mediation or arbitration before a lawsuit is filed; see condo and HOA disputes in Miami.

Watching the records for your own property. Because every deed in the county lands in those same Official Records, the Clerk offers a free Property Fraud Alert: register your folio number or your name, and the Clerk emails you within 24 hours when a matching document is recorded. The alert cannot stop a forged deed from being recorded, and it covers only documents recorded after you sign up, but it lets an owner act quickly. If a fraudulent deed is recorded, the Clerk advises reporting it to law enforcement and consulting an attorney. Florida gives a quiet title action based on a fraudulent conveyance summary procedure, advanced on the court’s calendar, and requires the clerk of the circuit court to provide a simplified complaint form (Florida Statutes section 65.091). See quiet title actions in Miami.