Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services v. Smith

The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services has petitioned for certiorari review of an administrative order issued by the Honorable C. McFerrin Smith, III, Chief Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court. The order limits the number of interviews which HRS may have with victims of child abuse and/or sexual abuse where the victim is under the age of sixteen. It also provides that those interviews be recorded. We agree that this is within the discretion of the chief judge.

The order was entered on the authority of section 9Í4.16, Florida Statutes (1991). That statute requires the…