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SB 342: Allows someone with a homestead exemption to rent their property out for 30 days without losing their homestead exemption.
Courts
SB 1792: The medical-malpractice bill requires that expert witnesses have the same specialties as the physicians who are defendants in medical-negligence cases.
HB 7015: Imposes the more-restrictive “Daubert” standards for admitting expert witness testimony in lawsuits, taking into account whether the expert testimony is “based upon sufficient facts or data;” whether it is the “product of reliable principles and methods”; and whether a witness has “applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.” The change will lead to Florida using the same standards that are used in federal courts.
HB 7083: The “Timely Justice Act” that is intended to reduce final delays in carrying out the death penalty. The measure includes several changes in the death-penalty process. As an example, the act requires the clerk of the Florida Supreme Court to notify the governor when a Death Row inmate’s state and federal court appeals have been completed. The governor would then have 30 days to issue a death warrant if the executive clemency process has finished. The warrant would require the execution be carried out within 180 days.
Utilities
SB 1472: Establishes new benchmarks for electric utilities that want to collect controversial fees while planning nuclear-power plants. The measure alters a 2006 law intended to encourage more nuclear power. Florida Power & Light and the former Progress Energy Florida — now Duke Energy — have used the law to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in pre-construction nuclear fees.
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