Standard for Petition for Writ of Certiorari

To invoke an appellate court’s certiorari jurisdiction, [t]he petitioning party must demonstrate that the contested order constitutes (1) a departure from the essential requirements of the law, (2) resulting in material injury for the remainder of the case[,] (3) that cannot be corrected on post-judgment appeal.

State Farm Florida Ins. Co. v. Sanders, 44 Fla.L.Weekly D1901a (Fla. 3d DCA 2019) quoting Rousso v. Hannon, 146 So.3d 66, 69 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014) (internal quotations omitted). 

This is the standard for a petition for writ of certiorari.

An example of an appellate court granting a petition for writ of certiorari and quashing a trial court’s order can be found in State Farm Florida Ins. Co. v. Sanders, which dealt with a property insurance coverage dispute. 

In this case, after the policyholder filed a lawsuit against his insurer, the insurer filed a motion to compel the parties to the appraisal process mandated by the property insurance policy.  An issue arose as to the parties’ selection of “disinterested” appraisers as required by the policy.  The policyholder wanted to use his public adjuster, which the insurer contested because the public adjuster is hardly disinterested – he is an agent for the policyholder. Notwithstanding, the trial court entered an order allowing the policyholder’s public adjuster to serve as the disinterested appraiser prompting the insurer to file a petition for writ of certiorari.

The appellate court granted the petition because allowing the public adjuster to serve as a disinterested appraiser is a harm that could NOT be corrected in a post-judgment appeal. A major reason for this is the nature of the property insurance appraisal process is a binding process, as more particularly outlined in the property insurance policy. 

If you are considering filing a petition for writ of certiorari, know the standard you need to satisfy to get the appellate court to entertain the petition and quash the trial court’s order.

 

Please contact David Adelstein at [email protected] or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.