Florida Form 6A is the annual Canon 6 disclosure that sitting judges and eligible senior judges file with the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission to report gifts, reimbursements, and waived expenses received during the year.1Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission. Financial Disclosure Memo and Forms It sits alongside Form 6 (full financial disclosure) and Form 6B (business interests), but it is a separate filing with a narrower purpose and a different submission path.
Who Has to File
Every sitting Florida judge files Form 6A each year. Senior judges who remain eligible for service also file, even if they did not actually hear any cases as a senior judge during the reporting period.1Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission. Financial Disclosure Memo and Forms Eligibility triggers the filing obligation; active service does not.
The requirement comes from Canon 6 of the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct, which implements the state’s broader financial transparency rules for members of the judiciary.
What You Report on Form 6A
The form captures three categories of financial benefit:
- Gifts of value received from outside parties.
- Reimbursements paid to you for expenses you had already incurred.
- Waived expenses — costs a third party absorbed on your behalf, such as travel, lodging, or event fees.
Form 6A does not ask about net worth, assets, liabilities, or ordinary income. Those belong on Form 6. The point of Form 6A is to surface outside financial support that would never appear on a standard income and asset disclosure, the kind of benefit that could create the appearance of partiality even when none was intended.
How to Fill It Out
Work through the full calendar year systematically. For each gift, reimbursement, or waived expense, record what you received, its value, and who provided it. Think about conference travel paid by an outside organization, meals at professional events, tickets to functions, and anything else you received at no cost or at a reduced cost.
If nothing reportable came in during the year, you still have to file the form and indicate that. The obligation runs to filing, not just to disclosing. Skipping the submission because the form would be blank is not an option.
Keep a copy of what you submit. If a question comes up later about a particular gift or reimbursement, having the filed form on hand will save time.
Where to Get the Form and How to Submit It
The Judicial Qualifications Commission posts Form 6A along with its filing instructions on its website at floridajqc.com, under the financial disclosure section.1Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission. Financial Disclosure Memo and Forms Download the current year’s version from there.
Submission goes to the JQC, not to the Florida Commission on Ethics. This matters because the Commission on Ethics runs the Electronic Financial Disclosure Management System (EFDMS) at disclosure.floridaethics.gov, and judges filing Form 6 use that portal. Form 6A is different. It is a JQC-administered form, and looking for it on the Commission on Ethics portal will send you in the wrong direction. Confirm the current submission process with the JQC directly.
When Form 6A Is Due
Form 6A follows the annual Canon 6 cycle for judicial disclosures. Confirm the current year’s specific deadline with the JQC. The familiar July 1 deadline that many Florida officials associate with financial disclosure applies to Form 6 under Section 112.3144 of the Florida Statutes and is enforced by the Commission on Ethics, not the JQC.2Florida Legislature. Florida Code 112.3144 – Full and Public Disclosure of Financial Interests Do not assume the two cycles line up; verify with the JQC for Form 6A.
How Form 6A Fits With Forms 6 and 6B
Canon 6 requires three separate filings from judges, and Form 6A is one of them:1Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission. Financial Disclosure Memo and Forms
- Form 6 covers income, assets, liabilities, and net worth, and is filed through the Commission on Ethics’ EFDMS portal.
- Form 6A covers gifts, reimbursements, and waived expenses, and is filed with the JQC.
- Form 6B covers business interests.
Because the three filings come due in the same general stretch of the year, judges often prepare them together. Just remember that Form 6A travels a different submission path than Form 6, with a deadline set separately by the JQC rather than by the statutory July 1 rule for Form 6. Confirming both deadlines early in the year is the simplest way to avoid a missed filing.