Tallahassee Sun

The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved SB 72, a bill that would provide Florida businesses that “substantially” complied with public-health standards or guidelines, immunity from COVID-19- related lawsuits filed by customers and employees.

According to the sponsor of the bill, Judiciary Chairman Jeff Brandes, without it, businesses could be sued if they did not “wholly” comply with the public-health orders issued at the state, local and federal levels.

“They would have been subject to lawsuits that could have put them under. Not only businesses but homeowners against homeowners, parishioners against pastors, and I think that’s what this legislation does,” Brandes said. “It says, ‘Look, we need to create a safe harbor for those businesses that substantially complied with the guidelines.”

The legislation would require plaintiffs to file claims within one year after incidents and would be required to acquire affidavits from Florida physicians declaring that the defendants had caused them damages, injuries, or deaths.

Bill Herrle, executive director of the small-business group NFIB Florida, commented that businesses are informed about the proposal being discussed.

“I can assure you that business owners are very aware that you are addressing this issue; that you are debating it today,” Herrle said. “And the thing they like about it the most is it’s being done today here at the very outset of the legislative session.”

The bill is not applicable to health-care providers such as hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians, according to MyPanhandle.com.