Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Associated PressFebruary 6, 2017

Attorneys for a Miami woman accused of playing a key role in the killing of a Florida State University law professor are trying once again to get her out of jail. An attorney for Katherine Magbanua on Monday requested that a Florida appeals court allow her to be released on bail. The motion with the […]

Michael MolineJanuary 27, 2017

The group behind a 14.5 percent workers’ compensation premium can’t get around Florida’s Sunshine Law by arguing that a single individual worked on the matter, and not a full-fledged internal committee, an appellate brief argues. The law holds that meetings by such committees at rating organizations like the National Council on Compensation Insurance, or NCCI, […]

Jim RosicaJanuary 19, 2017

The state won’t end up on the hook for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida‘s legal fees, according to an appellate court decision released Thursday. The health care organization had sought to punish the Agency for Health Care Administration by making it pay the group’s attorney fees after filing “administrative complaints … alleging violations of […]

Jim RosicaJanuary 18, 2017

The Florida Education Association (FEA) vented its “frustration” Wednesday after the Florida Supreme Court declined to take up a suit challenging the constitutionality of what’s been called “the nation’s largest private school choice program.” The court decided not to hear a challenge to the Tax Credit Scholarship Program, created in 2001, though – as one former judge noted – its […]

Jim RosicaJanuary 18, 2017

The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will not take up an appeal on a high-profile school vouchers case. The decision comes as a major setback to vouchers opponents, including the Florida Education Association (FEA), the statewide teachers’ union, but was applauded by school choice advocates. (Separate story on the FEA’s reaction here.) The court denied a request […]

Michael MolineJanuary 17, 2017

An intermediate state appeals court refused Monday to let a workers’ compensation claimant introduce a second medical opinion, in a case testing an evidence code provision the Legislature adopted in 2013. Baricko v. Barnett Transportation Inc. turned on the applicability of the Daubert evidentiary standard. The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in September about whether […]

Jim RosicaJanuary 17, 2017

Congressman Matt Gaetz, also an attorney, has won an appeal that should allow a Walton County couple to continue operating a skydiving business on their 290-acre farm near Paxton. A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal issued its unanimous decision Tuesday for James and Melanie Nipper. He “had a distinguished career as a U.S. Army […]

Michael MolineJanuary 12, 2017

State regulators and an organization that proposes workers’ compensation coverage rates in Florida defended themselves in pleadings to a state appeals court this week, seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that they had violated open-government laws. Attorneys for the National Council on Compensation Insurance, or NCCI, submitted their arguments in a brief filed Wednesday with […]

Michael MolineDecember 9, 2016

The public will suffer irreparable harm unless a state appeal court stays Florida’s 14.5 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance premiums, attorneys challenging the increase said in court papers this week. The National Council on Compensation Insurance, or NCCI, “cannot possibly demonstrate a likelihood of prevailing on appeal with respect to the trial court’s detailed, well-reasoned […]

Michael MolineDecember 1, 2016

A state appeals court allowed a 14.5 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance premiums to take effect on schedule Thursday, amid legal scrambling over whether the hike was illegal. The 1st District Court of Appeal acted even before a trial judge could decide on a request to delay her ruling last week invalidating the increase under […]

Tag: 1st District Court of Appeal
Crowds gather to see Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. (Gabrielle Russon)

Woman tied to murder of FSU law professor wants out of jail

NCCI, state insurance office can’t evade Sunshine Law, brief argues

State won’t have to pay Planned Parenthood’s legal tab

Teachers’ union: “Who can challenge the Legislature on voucher program?”

Supreme Court throws out school vouchers case

1st DCA rejects challenge to evidence standard in workers’ comp case

Matt Gaetz wins appeal for northwest Florida skydiving business

Ratings agency warns in brief against ‘dramatic expansion’ of Sunshine Law

Sunshine Law invoked in arguments over workers’ comp rate increase

Appeals court allows workers’ compensation premium hike to take effect