The Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court's Vision for Real Estate Business

On this episode of "Real Estate Law Unlocked," Partners Miriam Ramos and Andres Fernandez speak with Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court and Comptroller Juan Fernandez-Barquin and Miami-Dade General Counsel and Chief Deputy Clerk Luis Montaldo about the sweeping operational and financial changes triggered by Florida's Amendment 10. The conversation covers the transfer of key county finance functions to the clerk's office and what it means to serve as auditor, accountant, investor and custodian of Miami-Dade's $13 billion budget. Mr. Fernandez Barquin and Mr. Montaldo unpack the often-overlooked aspects of the clerk's role that go beyond traffic tickets and jury duty: official records (deeds, mortgages, judgments and plats), Value Adjustment Board property tax appeals, commission meeting records and other functions that touch daily government and real estate transactions. They also speak on the clerk's modernization agenda, including expanding digital access, combating deed fraud, and leveraging new technology and artificial intelligence-driven tools to facilitate online records access, as well as the challenges of implementing these updates within the constraints of legacy systems, multiagency infrastructure and funding limits.