Basics of Legal Research

As the number of Florida pro se litigants increase, so does their need for research tools. Since pro se litigants are nonlawyers, with little or no knowledge of the law, access to understandable easy to use resources is vital. Many pro se litigants are low income and therefore unable to pay for a research service.

Legal research is rarely easy or straightforward. Because American law stems from many sources and develops in complex ways, thorough legal research requires technical proficiency. And because the law is dynamic and often unclear, thorough legal research also demands creativity and careful thought.

Many consumers can easily locate Florida Statutes when beginning their research, but identifying the issue first may be more daunting. Florida Statutes can be pulled up online as simply as entering the search string - Florida Statutes online - into your favorite search engine. However, the statutes themselves are not intuitively searchable, and its difficult to know what you're looking for until you find it.

Narrowing the search from the outset will help bring results that are more useful and less daunting than a more general search. For example, suppose you were a residential tenant and you had received a three day notice to pay or quit. But, you, the tenant, did not want to pay because the landlord had promised repeatedly to fix the roof, air conditioning, and the hot water heater and had never done anything. How can a tenant find guidance, (assuming the tenant cannot afford an attorney and does not qualify for legal aid)?

Many consumers will immediately take to the net to find answers. Some question and answer sites have good answers and some don't. Finding the statutes could be a good starting point. For that issue, use the search string - Florida Statutes online landlord tenant - and you'll arrive at Florida Statute Chapter 83 in its entirety. This is a lot to wade through, and it is a better idea to do some general research first to familiarize yourself with landlords and tenants rights and responsibilities.

Read some articles from authoritative sources. Authoritative sources are official government sources like the Florida Bar site, or the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs.

https://www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBConsum.nsf/0a92a6dc28e76ae58525700a005d0d53/e21a25a8c288bed98525740800537588!OpenDocument

http://www.freshfromflorida.com/Divisions-Offices/Consumer-Services/Consumer-Resources/Consumer-Protection/Publications/Landlord-Tenant-Law-in-Florida

In reading these articles you may learn under what circumstances a tenant is allowed to withhold rent and why. Spending time collecting facts, learning the vocabulary, and then analyzing the facts will save hours of time spent on dead end research. Many beginning researchers can find the governing laws, statute, or ordinances, but struggle to find out how to apply them. The actual procedure is often the most difficult part in practical terms. These two broad areas of law are referred to as substantive and procedural.

In our scenario, about the tenant having been served with a Three Day Notice to Pay or Quit, the researcher will soon find out through reading articles and Florida Statutes, that a tenant can withhold rent if his rented dwelling is uninhabitable. The researcher, may then wonder, what exactly is considered "uninhabitable"? Is having no air conditioning in July in Florida considered legally "uninhabitable"? We all may well agree that no A/C is torture, but the law doesn't say so. In fact, Florida landlord tenant laws demand that a dwelling have heat, but air conditioning is not a requirement for habitability. Hot water and a non-leaking roof are generally considered requirements for a habitable dwelling. See 83.51 Landlord’s obligation tomaintain premises.— for more information.

If a residential tenant needs to withhold rent because the landlord won't make necessary repairs or if the dwelling is uninhabitable, the rent should be deposited with in the registry of the court. And the tenant should have notified the landlord in writing previously and the landlord failed or refused to make things right. If the tenant has placed the rent in the registry of the court, and the judge finds that the landlord has neglected his obligation to maintain the property, the judge can then decide how the rent money should be disbursed.

Exact procedures for withholding rent can sometimes be found on the clerk of court's website (depending on the county). Pinellas Counts provides some good information and forms for landlords and tenants. Notes on the form for withholding rent state:

A Tenant cannot withhold rent from the Landlord without sending notice and allowing the Landlord time to cure the non-compliance, violation, or default of its obligations. Failure to send the required notice to th e Landlord has significant impact on a Tenant’s rights under the rental agreement and Florida Statutes. If the non-compliance is not remedied within the time period specified by statute (or such longer time as may be granted in your written rental agreement) and the Landlord’s failure to comply renders the dwelling unit untenantable and the Tenant vacates, the Tenant may vacate and withhold all rent, or, if the failure to comply does not render the dwelling unit untenantable, rent may be reduced in proportion to the loss of rental value caused by the non-compliance. If the Landlord’s violation of its obligations is not remedied, but the failure to cure the non-compliance does not render the dwelling unit untenantable, the Tenant may remain in the dwelling unit and the rent shall be reduced, until the violation is cured, by an amount in proportion to the loss of rental value caused by the failure to cure the violation. In any legal proceeding, however, the Tenant will have to pay all past due rent, and rent as it co mes due during the legal proceedings, into the registry of t he Court. The Tenant should, therefore, deposit all rent as it comes due in a separate bank account until the Tenant's disputes with the Landlord have been resolved.

For the text of Florida Statute 83.51(1), and the grounds for withholding rent, see the note to Form 3. SOURCE: Sections 83.56 and 83.60, Florida Statutes (2007).

Legal information can be found in many places. Diligent and persistent search pays off when you find the answers to troubling legal questions. Keep an open mind, frame the issues, and remember there may be more than one right answer to any legal question.