Dena Sokolow, an FCA speaker on employment law issues for Florida Laws and Rules, and Shareholder in the Tallahassee office of Baker Donelson*, is offering a live webinar today at 11:30 a.m. on the new Emergency Family Medical Leave Act passed just last week.  It takes 1 minute to register.  The FCA thanks Ms. Sokolow for offering this to our membership.  Read more for an outline of what will be covered.

Monday, March 16, 2020, Tallahassee – State lawmakers, scheduled to end their 60-day legislative session on Friday, worked up until their midnight deadline before finally acknowledging they would need to extend to complete the one task they are mandated to complete each year: Passing a state budget for the next fiscal year. Budget work continued into the weekend as leaders in both the House and Senate worked behind the scenes to hammer out their differences. Their final conference report was “published” on Sunday, triggering a 72-hour “cooling off” period before a final vote can be taken. Current plans call for lawmakers to return to the capitol on Thursday afternoon to vote on their record $93.2-billion budget plan.

FCA Govt. Rel. Director Jack Hebert tells of end-of-session highlights in this week's video update.

Friday, March 6, 2020, Tallahassee – With just one week remaining in this year’s annual lawmaking session, questions continue to mount as legislative leaders suggest they may not be able to complete their work by their scheduled adjournment on March 13th. While budget negotiations between the House and Senate leaders are supposedly taking place behind-the-scenes, neither body has moved forward to appoint the usual assemblage of conferees to formally accomplish the goal of hammering out a state government spending plan in the sunshine. Passing a balanced budget is the only chore the legislature must accomplish before adjourning, the likelihood of which now appears improbable without the possible overtime extension suggested yesterday by both the Speaker and President.

An Appeals Court has upheld the 2013 PIP Law exclusion of payment reimbursements for massage or any service by a licensed massaged therapist (LMT).

Friday, February 28, 2020, Tallahassee – With just two weeks remaining in the year’s regular legislative session the proposal aimed at repealing and replacing Florida’s decades-old No-fault/PIP auto insurance system was approved yesterday afternoon by the House Commerce Committee, the bill’s last committee of reference. That means the proposal (HB771) authored by Rep. Erin Grall (R-Vero Beach), is now available for consideration by the full Florida House. A similar proposal (SB 378) is currently stalled in the Senate.

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Friday, February 21, 2020, Tallahassee – With only three weeks remaining in this year’s annual session, a majority of committees in both the House and Senate held their final meetings this week. More time will now be devoted to sessions on the floor of each chamber, debating and voting on those issues that have successfully completed their trek through the committee process. This week also saw bills seeking to repeal PIP/No-fault failing to be scheduled for additional committee hearings. 

Friday, February 14, 2020, Tallahassee – Lawmakers reached the halfway point of their 60-day annual legislative session this Wednesday, during a week otherwise dominated by debate and final passage of each chamber’s state budget spending proposals. Legislators are now in a posture to begin Senate-House negotiations to hammer out the differences between their two plans. About $1.4-billion currently separates the two proposals – now $91.4-billion in the House compared to a Senate bottom line of $92.8-billion. Significantly different spending priorities between the two plans will have to be worked through in the four remaining weeks to achieve an on-time adjournment on March 13th. Conferees will likely be appointed by both the House Speaker and the Senate President as soon as next week, to begin their negotiations.