Florida family law: Disqualification of a judge based on dissatisfaction with rulings

Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Family Law Procedure

What are grounds for disqualifying a Florida family law judge? The fact that a litigant is unhappy with a judge’s ruling is usually not enough to disqualify a judge. This was an issue in the case Cimbler v. Greemberg, 3D25-0137 (Fla. 3d DCA March 12, 2025).

The trial court denied a motion to disqualify and a petition for writ of prohibition was filed with the appellate court. At the trial level, the appellant complained that the judge failed to enter a default against non-compliant parties, and this was the basis of the motion to disqualify. The appellate court denied the petition for writ of prohibition, holding “Reiterating the well-entrenched principle that disqualification motions were never intended ‘to enable a discontented litigant to oust a judge because of adverse rulings made,’ we conclude that the allegations at issue here, without more, are insufficient to establish entitlement to prohibition.”

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