The authority of changing venue based on a party’s concern about not receiving a fair trial because of a biased or prejudiced jury pool can be found in section 47.101, Florida Statutes—not  Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.060.

Procedural Requirements. The statute requires that a motion to change venue contain a verified statement of facts, be supported by affidavits of at least two “reputable” citizens of the county in which the case was filed, and be filed within 10 days after the action is “at issue,” unless good cause is shown.

A case is “at issue” 20 days after service of the last pleading or once all motions directed to that last pleading are decided. See Fla. R. Civ. P. Rule 1.440. Pleading as used in this rule connotes those finite number of pleadings recognized by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure (complaint, answer, counterclaim, etc.). See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.100(a). Some courts have strictly construed these requirements, denying a motion outright for non-compliance.

Standards. The statute contains two bases for changing venue: (1) “Because the adverse party has an undue influence over the minds of the inhabitants of the county”; or (2) “Because movant is so odious to the inhabitants of the county that he or she could not receive a fair trial.” The Florida Supreme Court has announced a succinct test for determining whether a change of venue is proper:

Whether the general state of mind of the inhabitants of the community is so infected by knowledge of the incident and accompanying prejudice, bias, and pre-conceived opinions that jurors could not possibly put these matters out of their minds and try the case solely on the evidence presented in the courtroom.

Rolling v. State, 695 So. 2d 278, 285 (Fla. 1997) (quoting McCaskill v. State, 344 So. 2d 1276, 1278 (Fla. 1977)).

Once a defendant raises the partiality of the venire, the trial court must look at two prongs: (1) the extent and nature of any pretrial publicity; and (2) the difficulty encountered in actually selecting a jury.

On the first prong, courts should consider 5 factors for determining the effect of pretrial publicity on the knowledge and impartiality of the prospective jurors:

(1) the length of time that has passed from the incident to the trial and when within that time the publicity occurred;
(2) whether the publicity consisted of straight, factual news stories or inflammatory stories;
(3) whether the publicity favored the non-movant’s case or version of events;
(4) the size of the community in question; and
(5) whether the defendant exhausted all of his peremptory challenges.

Florida courts have placed great emphasis on the second factor above. “Publicity, in and of itself, is not sufficient grounds for change of venue. The publicity must be hostile publicity.”

The second prong of the analysis requires the trial court to examine the extent of difficulty in actually selecting an impartial jury at voir dire. If voir dire shows that it is impossible to select jurors who will decide the case based on the evidence, rather than the jurors’ extrinsic knowledge, then a change of venue is required. The ability to seat an impartial jury in a high-profile case may be demonstrated by either a lack of extrinsic knowledge among members of the venire or, assuming such knowledge, a lack of partiality.

On this point, the supreme court has encouraged trial courts “to attempt to impanel a jury before ruling on a change of venue.” This provides trial courts an opportunity to determine through voir dire whether it is actually possible to find individuals who have not been seriously infected by the publicity. If the trial court finds such individuals, a jury is selected. Where the voir dire fails to produce these individuals, the trial court must grant the motion for change of venue.

The supreme court has, on numerous occasions, emphasized that to be qualified, jurors need not be totally ignorant of the facts of the case, nor do they need to be free from any preconceived notion. In fact, knowledge of the incidence because of its notoriety is not, in and of itself, a ground for a change of venue. Rather, the issue may turn on the nature and extent of the pretrial information the juror has acquired and an analysis as to whether a juror “can lay aside his impression or opinion” based upon any pretrial information and “render a verdict based on the evidence presented in court.”

Appellate Standard of Review. A motion for change of venue is addressed to the trial court’s discretion and will not be overturned on appeal absent a “palpable abuse of discretion” or a “grossly improvident” exercise of discretion. The determination is usually one of fact which the presiding judge, who has knowledge of all the circumstances of the case, is in a much better position to pass on that the appellate court. Because of this heightened standard of review, most of the cases in Florida have affirmed the trial court’s denial of a motion for change of venue.