WHEREAS, Rule 2.430(f), Florida Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration, provides that all exhibits, except exhibits in criminal proceedings, shall be retained by the clerk until 90 days after a judgment has become final, and any party or attorney of record may ask the clerk to return exhibits upon receiving 30 days’ notice of the clerk’s intent to destroy or dispose of the exhibit, and

        WHEREAS, original promissory notes and mortgages are routinely filed as exhibits in foreclosure trials, and these original documents may need to be preserved in the event they are canceled subsequent to the entry of a judgment or the parties renegotiate the loan;

        NOW THEREFORE, I, JAMES R. CLAYTON, Chief Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, hereby order that:

1. Original notes and mortgages filed as exhibits in foreclosure cases will be kept in the court file and retained by the clerk in accordance with the Rule 2.430(c), Florida Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration.

2. Parties who wish to have the original note or mortgage returned to them must seek a court order for the return of those documents.

TO BE RECORDED in Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns & Volusia counties.

DONE AND ORDERED in DeLand, Volusia County, Florida this 27^th day of September 2022.