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1. A bona fide, actual, present practical need for declaration;
2. The declaration should concern a present, ascertained or ascertainable state of facts or present controversy as to a state of facts;
3. An immunity, power, privilege or right of the complaining party is dependent upon the facts or the law applicable to the facts;
4. A person or persons have, or reasonably may have, an actual, present, adverse and antagonistic interest in the subject matter, either in fact or law;
5. The antagonistic and adverse interest(s) are all before the court by proper process or class representation; and
6. The relief sought is not merely giving of legal advice or the answer to questions propounded for curiosity.

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1. A bona fide, actual, present practical need for declaration;
2. The declaration should concern a present, ascertained or ascertainable state of facts or present controversy as to a state of facts;
3. An immunity, power, privilege or right of the complaining party is dependent upon the facts or the law applicable to the facts;
4. A person or persons have, or reasonably may have, an actual, present, adverse and antagonistic interest in the subject matter, either in fact or law;
5. The antagonistic and adverse interest(s) are all before the court by proper process or class representation; and
6. The relief sought is not merely giving of legal advice or the answer to questions propounded for curiosity.

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FLORIDA STATE COURTS

Supreme Court: Coal. for Adequacy & Fairness in Sch. Funding, Inc. v. Chiles, 680 So. 2d 400, 404 (Fla. 1996).

First District: Torres v. Shaw, 345 So. 3d 970, 975 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022); MacNeil v. Crestview Hosp. Corp., 292 So.3d 840, 843 (Fla. 1st DCA 2020); Scott v. Francati, 214 So.3d 742, 747 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017). 

Second District: Ranucci v. City of Palmetto, 317 So.3d 270, 274 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021); Touchton v. Woodside Credit, LLC, 316 So.3d 392, 395 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021).

Third District: Imperial Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Acosta, 2021 WL 5227095, *2 (Fla. 3d DCA Nov. 10, 2021); Crawley-Kitzman v. Hernandez, 324 So.3d 968, 974 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021); Mandarin Lakes Cmty. Ass’n, Inc. v. Mandarin Lakes Neighborhood Homeowners Ass’n, Inc., 322 So.3d 1196, 1199 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021).

Fourth District: Guttenberg v. Smith & Wesson Corp., 357 So. 3d 690, 694 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023); Comisar v. Heritage Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 344 So. 3d 46, 48 (Fla. 4th DCA 2022); Northwest Ctr. for Integrative Med.  and Rehab., Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 214 So.3d 679, 681-82 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017); Bartsch v. Costello, 170 So.3d 83, 88 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015).

Fifth District: MacKenzie v. Centex Homes, 208 So.3d 790, 793 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016); Ramos v. CACH, LLC, 183 So. 3d 1149, 1153 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015).

FLORIDA FEDERAL COURTS

Eleventh Circuit: Mack v. USAA Cas. Ins. Co., 994 F.3d 1353, 1356-57 (11th Cir. 2021); A&M Gerber Chiropractic LLC v. GEICO Gen. Ins. Co., 925 F.3d 1205, 1210-11 (11th Cir. 2019).

Southern District: Sullivan v. Marble Hill, Ltd, No. 1:23-CV-23459-LEIBOWITZ, 2024 WL 4120792, at *7 (S.D. Fla. July 3, 2024); Chrisholm Props. South Beach, Inc. v. Arch Specialty Ins. Co., 2022 WL 356452, *4 (S.D. Fla. Feb. 7, 2022); BluestarExpo, Inc. v. Enis, 2021 WL 4949249, *15 (S.D. Fla. Oct. 25, 2021); Ferguson v. Miami Dolphins, No. 20-24483-CIV-SCOLA, 2021 WL 2823581, at *6 (S.D. Fla. July 7, 2021).

Middle District: Hiscox Ins. Co. Inc. v. Luminous Salon LLC, No. 6:24-CV-910-WWB-RMN, 2025 WL 948365, at *2 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 28, 2025); State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. LaRocca, 2022 WL 1401565, *8 (M.D. Fla. May 3, 2022); Hanover Ins. Co. v. J&S Promotions, LLC, No. 2:19-CV-835-JES-NPM, 2021 WL 2661107, at *2 (M.D. Fla. June 29, 2021); Lake v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., No. 8:20-CV-3010-VMC-TGW, 2021 WL 2649234, at *5 (M.D. Fla. June 28, 2021).

Northern District: Gil v. City of Pensacola, Fla., F.Supp.3d 1059, 1061 (N.D. Fla. 2019); Moore v. Nunn, No.: 3:19cv39/MCR/EMT, 2019 WL 7485332, at *7 (N.D. Fla. August 27, 2019); Taylor v. Jones, No. 3:18cv1722-MCR-HTC, 2019 WL 3781616, at *8 (N.D. Fla. July 9, 2019).

FLORIDA STATUTES

§ 86.021, Fla. Stat.; see also § 120.565, Fla. Stat. (declaratory statement)

FLORIDA RULES

Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.510(a), (b) (motion for summary judgment on action for declaratory judgment)

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2 Defenses to Claim for Declaratory Judgment

(1) Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.110(d) (pleading affirmative defenses), and other standard defenses. See § 1.

(2) Statute of Limitations: § 95.11(3)(p), Fla. Stat. (four years); Hollywood Lakes Section Civic Assoc. v. City of Hollywood, 676 So. 2d 500, 501 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996).

(3) A declaratory judgment is not available where plaintiff seeks an advisory opinion as to the possibility of legal injury based on hypothetical facts. See Santa Rosa Cty. v. Admin. Comm’n, Division of Admin. Hearings, 661 So. 2d 1190, 1192 (Fla. 1995); Evanston Insurance Company v. Republic Properties, Inc., 2017 WL 2215638, at *2 (M.D. Fla. May 19, 2017).

(4) Courts cannot grant a declaratory judgment in the absence of a “concrete controversy susceptible to conclusive judicial determination”. See Gagliardi v. TJCV Land Trust, 889 F.3d 728, 735 (11th Cir. 2018).

(5) “Where a district court has before it a declaratory judgment action and a direct action containing all of the issues in the declaratory judgment action, and decides the common issues in the direct action, it may exercise its discretion to dismiss the declaratory judgment complaint.” Lannard Toys Ltd. v. Toys “R” Us-Delaware, Inc., No. , 2019 WL 1304290, at *28 (M.D. Fla. March 21, 2019)(quoting In Re Orion Pictures Corp., 4 F.3d 1095, 1100 (2d Cir. 1993)).

(6) In Federal courts, the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201, governs declaratory judgment actions, as the Eleventh Circuit has held that the Florida Declaratory Judgment Act is procedural rather than substantive law. See Coccaro v. Geico Gen. Ins. Co., 648 F. App’x 876, 880-81 (11th Cir. 2016); Sullivan v. Marble Hill, Ltd, No. 1:23-CV-23459-LEIBOWITZ, 2024 WL 4120792, at *7 (S.D. Fla. July 3, 2024).

(7) “Where a plaintiff has not demonstrated that he faces ‘any threat of’ the Defendants violating the law “in the future,” he is not entitled to a declaratory judgment.” Donaldson v. Hawkins, 2021 WL 6524503, *1 (N.D. Fla. Dec. 6, 2021).

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