Florida Bar practice guides offer Florida-specific guidance across key practice areas

Florida Bar members now have access to the latest, most authoritative guides to civil trial practice, real property litigation, small business practice, trust administration, and maritime law.

Few resources are as deeply rooted in Florida practice, assures Bar Marketing Manager Rob Saravia.

“National competitors can produce thorough doctrinal treatises, but they cannot replicate institutional knowledge of how Florida judges rule, how Florida circuit clerks process filings, or how the next Florida statutory amendment is being shaped.”

Produced by The Florida Bar’s Legal Publications Division, the guides are authored by Florida judges, experienced Florida practitioners, and Florida legal scholars.

Florida Real Property Litigation — 12th Edition (December 2025, 946 pages)

The guide is a 14-chapter playbook for every adversarial real property matter a Florida lawyer is likely to encounter — quiet title, ejectment, boundary disputes, slander of title, partition, foreclosures, reformation and cancellation of instruments, service of process, breach of sales and loan agreements, restrictive covenants, lis pendens, landlord-tenant disputes, statutory private property rights protection, and attorneys’ fees recovery, Saravia says.

“National competitors give you doctrine; this gives you the document,” he notes, adding that the guide is built around Florida statutory chapters (F.S. Chs. 65, 48, 49, 95, 720, 723), with form complaints, affidavits, and final judgements embedded directly into each chapter. Designed for an attorney to move quickly from a phone call to a filed pleading, the guide is also a defensive tool that allows “practitioners to cite it back to opposing counsel and to the court,” he says.

Florida Civil Trial Practice — 15th Edition (March 2026, 748 pages)

The guide is a 20-chapter manual of the Florida civil trial, from the trial lawyer’s ethical duties (Ch. 1) through the trial notebook, compelling witness attendance, making a proper record, jury selection, opening statement, direct and cross-examination, expert witnesses, documentary and demonstrative evidence, motions practice, summation, jury instructions and verdicts, post-trial motions, and the entry of orders and judgments, Saravia says.

The manual is designed to walk a lawyer through a trial sequentially, with each chapter written by a Florida specialist on jury selection and jury instructions.

“Other treatises teach trial advocacy in the abstract; this teaches you how to try a case under Florida’s specific rules, Florida’s specific verdict forms, and Florida’s specific appellate-preservation traps,” Saravia says.

Statistics show that 98% of civil cases settle, giving fewer attorneys the ability to gain trial experience. The guide is a “co-counsel,” allowing the attorney to build a trial notebook, chapter by chapter, “knowing each step has been vetted by experienced Florida trial veterans,” Saravia notes.

“The manual turns a courtroom into a checklist, authored by judges and seasoned trial lawyers who tell you exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to preserve the record while you do.”

Florida Small Business Practice — 13th Edition (March 2026, 1,208 pages)

The guide is a 16-chapter reference for the lawyer advising small businesses — entity selection, formation checklist, federal income taxation of each entity type, corporations, partnerships (GP, LP, LLP), LLCs, professional service corporations and PLLCs, sale and purchase of a business, Subchapter S elections, basic securities regulations, Florida franchise law, licensing and regulatory compliance, FLSA and wage-and-hour law, e-commerce, and an overview of bankruptcy, Saravia says.

“The manual runs Florida-specific tax, franchise, and licensing rules through the same decision framework you use for entity selection.”

The text covers “all the moving parts” of engagement for Florida solo and small-firm lawyers who serve as primary advisors for the state’s 3 million small businesses, Saravia says. It also replaces the need to buy five different treatises to serve a single client, he notes.

“Florida Small Business Practice, 13th Edition, gives every Florida attorney a complete operating manual for the small business client — from entity formation to sale — written by highly skilled practitioners who serve in leadership positions in the business law community.”

Administration of Trusts in Florida — 13th Edition (March 2026, 1,002 pages)

The guide is an 18-chapter operational manual for trustees and the lawyers who advise them — trustee powers, duties, and liabilities; resignation, removal, and succession of trustees; the Florida Prudent Investor Act; trust accountings; creditors’ rights to trust assets; lapse and antilapse; termination and modification of express trusts; trust litigation; qualified domestic trusts; funding trusts; tax considerations; trustee and attorney compensation; title issues; offshore trusts; charitable trusts; special needs trusts; and a full treatment of the Florida Trust Code (F.S. Ch. 736), Saravia says.

Instead of the drafting of a trust, the guide focuses on a bigger challenge — what happens after a trust is signed, Saravia notes.

With $84 trillion in generational wealth being transferred nationally, trust administration is one of the few practice areas with guaranteed growth, Saravia notes.

“This manual addresses the questions that actually generate fees and malpractice exposure — trustee duties of impartiality, accountings, creditor reach, compensation disputes, modification petitions — and it does so under Florida’s specific statutory scheme rather than the Uniform Trust Code in the abstract.”

Florida Maritime Law & Practice — Eighth Edition (November 2025, 1,072 pages)

The guide covers the full scope of maritime practice in Florida — admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, practice and procedure under Supplemental Rules, personal injury and wrongful death of seamen and passengers, maritime workers’ compensation, carriage of goods, charters, salvage, general average, collision, marine insurance, maritime liens, limitation of liability, pleasure boats, Florida boating law, pilotage and towage, marina liability, maritime security, and vessel sales, Saravia says.

Maritime practice in Florida encompasses cruise lines, recreational boating, commercial shipping at the Port of Miami and Jaxport, and a full slate of personal injury claims, Saravia notes, adding that the maritime practice area can intimidate non-specialists because of the dual federal-state jurisdictional structure, and the Supplemental Rules’ procedural traps.

“This manual is the on-ramp — it lets a general civil litigator triage a maritime case and gives the specialist a comprehensive reference with citations updated through the relevant edition.”

It’s a guide written by Florida board-certified admiralty specialists for a state “where every form of maritime practice converges,” he says.