Public Records Indexing in Florida: A Guide for Clerks of the Circuit Court

Quick reference

Who manages land records

Article VIII, §1(d) of the Florida Constitution makes the elected clerk of the circuit court the ex officio county recorder, subject to stated exceptions, and Article V, §16 allows court and recorder duties to be divided by law. F.S. 28.222 designates the clerk as recorder of all instruments required or authorized to be recorded in the county. Florida has 67 counties.

The Official Records index

F.S. 28.222 is unusually specific about the index, which makes Florida a clear case for defining fields up front:

• All recorded instruments go into one series called Official Records.
• A register records each instrument's number, the date and hour of filing, the kind of instrument, and the parties' names.
• The clerk maintains a general alphabetical index, direct and inverse (indexed under both sides of the transaction).

Recordable instruments include deeds, leases, mortgages, liens, assignments, releases, satisfactions, related powers of attorney, lis pendens, and judgments. Under F.S. 28.223, certain probate instruments — admitted wills, letters of administration, and orders affecting real property — are also recorded in Official Records and indexed the same way. Backfile classification rules should include those probate types.

Recording requirements

F.S. 695.26 generally requires:

• Printed or typed names beneath the signatures of signers and witnesses, with their post-office addresses.
• The name and address of the natural person who prepared the instrument.
• The acknowledging officer's name beneath their signature.
• Grantee names and addresses on instruments other than mortgages.
• A 3-inch by 3-inch blank space in the upper-right corner of the first page, and 1 inch by 3 inches on later pages.

F.S. 689.01 requires two subscribing witnesses for conveyances of freehold interests, leases excepted. Witness names are therefore a predictable element of Florida deeds, and an office may choose to capture them.

Documentary stamp and intangible taxes

• Deeds: $0.70 per $100 of consideration (F.S. 201.02). In Miami-Dade the rate is $0.60 per $100 plus a $0.45 surtax, which does not apply to transfers of only a single-family dwelling.
• Mortgages: $0.35 per $100 of the obligation secured (F.S. 201.08), plus a one-time nonrecurring intangible tax of 2 mills (F.S. 199.133).

Electronic recording

F.S. 695.27, Florida's Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, authorizes recorders to receive, index, store, and transmit electronic documents. Recorders that accept electronic documents must keep accepting paper, and both must go into the same index. Department of State standards govern implementation. A single index standard for paper, electronic, and backfile records is therefore a statutory expectation, not just good practice — see day-forward indexing.

Public records and Social Security numbers

Chapter 119 makes county records open to inspection and copying unless an exemption applies. For Official Records, F.S. 119.0714(3) bars Social Security numbers unless required by law, requires the clerk to use best efforts to protect them in electronic records, and provides a free redaction process on signed written request. Backfile projects that put historical images online should plan detection and redaction of SSNs and other protected data before publishing them.

Retention and statewide access

The Department of State's Division of Library and Information Services issues General Records Schedule GS11 for Clerks of Court (effective June 2023), used together with GS1-SL for common administrative records. Check it before disposing of source material after scanning.

Florida's clerks also offer a statewide Official Records search and document-ordering service that can be searched by county, circuit, region, or statewide.

Practical considerations for backfile projects

• Direct and inverse indexing: every party must be findable from both sides. Plan extraction and review for both party roles.
• Probate instruments: include the F.S. 28.223 document types in classification rules.
• SSN exposure: older records may contain SSNs; plan detection and redaction before images go online.
• Witness and preparer fields: decide early whether to capture them; they appear consistently on post-statute documents.

Disclaimer: This guide is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Statutes, rates, and procedures change; consult current statutory text and your office's counsel.