Q: Is a Motion for Summary Judgement allowed in Florida small claims court? If so, is an answer required?

A: Yes, you can move for summary judgment. No, a response to it is not required.

A: Though you can file any motion you feel like filing, a small claims court judge is not supposed to use the summary judgment motion procedures that are set forth in the Fla. Rules of Civil Procedure unless those rules have been invoked by court order. The reason small claims court exists is to have a fairly simple, fast, and easy to understand process so that litigating parties will not need a lawyer AND will not need to know the rules of civil procedure, or even know about their existence. The Rules of Civil Procedure summary judgment process is generally used when the parties have completed discovery (depositions, interrogatories, etc.) with the parties arguing in writing why there is or is not a genuine issue of material fact to be decided by the trier of fact. In that process, therefore, the non-movant must make a presentation to try to persuade the judge that there are fact issue(s) that must go to trial. If the small claims judge does not invoke the Rules, the simplified small claims process must be used, and that process generally does not require the filing of a response to any motion. At the pretrial conference, a party is free to verbally argue to the judge that there is no reason to bring the case to trial, and therefore should be tossed out by summary disposition. I'm guessing that such summary dispositions are very rare.