Jesse Scheckner
A bill that would revise state rules for payouts in government negligence lawsuits for the first time in 15 years is bound for the House floor after undergoing changes in its final committee stop.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 19-3 for HB 301, which would update Florida’s sovereign immunity statutes that dictate how a person can seek compensation for government carelessness, and for how much.
Sovereign immunity is a centuries-old standard in all but 11 states that shields state and local governments from having to settle pricey lawsuits without their consent. In Florida, it limits payouts in cases of negligence to $200,000 for one person and $300,000 for each incident.
The caps were last adjusted in 2010, despite yearly attempts to increase them. Any payment above those figures must receive approval from the Legislature through a claims bill.
The claims process is arduous and seldom successful, according to Sarasota Republican Rep. Fiona McFarland, the sponsor of HB 301, because it pits two opposing principles against one another.
“One is being able to face your oppressor, and the other is being able to shield our constituency from a high tax base,” she said, adding that there won’t ever be a perfect number for payouts or an ideal arrangement to facilitate them.
“We (lawmakers) can do numbers all day. We are the appropriators. We understand how to do state budgets. But we don’t as a body understand how to dispose of judicial matters, and that’s what the claims bill asks us to do.”
HB 301 would keep Florida’s sovereign immunity protections intact, but it would also markedly change them. It would empower local governments and government entities like safety net hospitals to waive their sovereign immunity protections and settle lawsuits and claims against them above the state-set caps. It would also prohibit insurers from having Florida policies that condition payouts on the passage of claims bills.
The bill originally included cap increases to $1 million for one person and $3 million for each incident. But on Tuesday, McFarland amended her item, with the committee’s approval, to lower the caps to $500,000 for one person and $1 million for one incident. Those levels would increase in five years to $600,000 and $1.1 million, respectively.
McFarland called the change a “good faith effort” to address contentions sthat maller, more fiscally constrained cities and counties have had for years that big payout cap hikes would put them in dire financial straits.
For some of the panel’s members, like Lake Mary Republican Rep. Rachel Plakon, the change was enough to flip her vote to a “yes.” Others lamented it.
Hillsborough County Republican Rep. Danny Alvarez said he was “sad” to see McFarland bow to pressure to reduce the amounts, “especially in modern times, to make this pass with other Republicans.”
Escambia County Republican Rep. Michelle Salzman agreed. “Caps lower or higher, we have to get this through.”
Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras said lawmakers see multiple claims bills yearly. There are seldom questions or debate about each case’s merit, he said, but a seemingly never-ending argument about how to update the “antiquated” claims process.
“It’s clean and simple. The government was at fault. Here we are, trying to make it right,” he said. “Why are we protecting government from its own liability?”
Ocoee Democratic Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis said if committee members disagreed with lowering the caps, they could vote against McFarland’s amendment. Shalimar Republican Rep. Patt Maney said he thought the bill was “much better” with the lower caps, but they were still not where they needed to be to receive his support.
Representatives from numerous government advocacy groups signaled opposition to HB 301, including the Panhandle Area Education Consortium, Florida Association of Counties, Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida and Florida League of Cities. Miami-Dade County, Orange County, the Leon County Commission and the municipalities of Bartow and Gulfport also objected to the measure.
Belleair Bluffs City Commissioner Karen Lafferty, representing the Suncoast League of Cities, said she appreciated McFarland’s effort to bring relief to residents wronged by government. But she said even the adjusted caps would place “an extraordinary financial burden on citizens of my city and scores of other cities the same size” because tax increases would be necessary to cover the change.
“Cities like mine do not have deep pockets,” she said. “The increase proposed will result in compromised infrastructure and eroded public safety and slower economic growth.”
The Florida Justice Association supported the bill. Lawyer Latoya Harridon-Lodge called the current caps “woefully inadequate” and praised HB 301’s provision to allow localities to sidestep the claims bill process. She noted that in Tuesday’s meeting alone, the committee took up claims bills dating back to 2012.
“We all know the claims bill process is very cumbersome,” she said. “We’ve sat here and we’ve seen that there are times where either the Governor doesn’t want to sign a claims bill or Speakers do not want to entertain claims bills, and what we’ve done is politicize the pain of those who have been injured as a result of government negligence.”
Miami Lakes Republican Rep. Tom Fabricio and Orlando Democratic Rep. Johanna López joined Maney in voting against HB 301, which now pends scheduling for a House floor vote.
The bill’s upper-chamber companion (SB 1570) hasn’t been heard. Florida Politics contacted the bill’s sponsor, St. Petersburg Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie, but did not receive a response.
