Rule 3.907.Use of court facilities and court personnel

A stipulated reference under section 638 is, at its core, a private arrangement the parties chose over litigating in front of a judge, and Rule 3.907 treats it that way. Electing to use a section 638 referee is deemed an election to proceed outside court facilities, which means the default assumption is that the reference runs on the parties' own dime, in the parties' own chosen space, without drawing on the courthouse the taxpayers fund.

That default carries real teeth. Court facilities, court personnel, and summoned jurors cannot be used in the proceedings before that referee unless the presiding judge or a designee makes an affirmative finding that doing so would serve the interests of justice. Absent that finding, a section 638 referee runs the reference somewhere else, with staff the parties arrange themselves. The rule for court-ordered references under section 639 runs the opposite direction: rule 3.926 entitles those parties to court-facility use to the extent the order of reference specifies, underscoring how differently the rules treat a reference the parties chose from one the court imposed.