Posted On 4/9/2021

Governor Ron DeSantis at the beginning of the pandemic issued an emergency order allowing restaurants to sell liquor in sealed containers to-go. This allowed for restaurants to profit off alcohol sales during the pandemic.

On 4/7/2021 the Florida Senate approved Senate Bill 148. The bill allows for sale of alcoholic beverages to-go. The restrictions of the bill are that the beverages cannot exceed 32 ounces in size and they must be sealed and placed in a bag with a dated receipt for food and drinks. While driving an individual must place the beverage in a locked compartment, trunk, or behind the rear upright seats in the vehicle.

This bill is being sent to the House for review. If approved, the bill will go into effect on July 1st, 2021.

Posted On 4/7/2021

Posted On 4/6/2021

Service of process notifies a defendant of pending legal action against them. The defendant has to receive both the court summons and the complaint for service to be effective. A summons is issued by the court. A summons notifies the defendant that they have a pending legal action in which they must appear before the court. The complaint is a document from the plaintiff which specifies the remedy in which they are seeking from the defendant.

Posted On 4/2/2021

On 3/29/2021 Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 72 into law. This law gives civil immunity to individuals, businesses, healthcare providers, government entities, and educational and religious institutions for COVID-19 related claims. For a plaintiff to bring forward a lawsuit for COVID-19 related death, damages, or injuries, the plaintiff must show: (1) plead their allegations with greater particularity than is normally required; (2) submit and affidavit by a licensed Florida physician that they believe “with a reasonable degree of medical certainty” that the plaintiff’s COVID-19 related damages were as a result of the businesses wrongdoing; and (3) they must show that the business did not make a good faith effort to substantially comply with public health standards.

According to DeSantis, “we don’t want to be in a situation where people are scared of being sued for normal things.” He also mentioned, “As we move forward in our state’s economic recovery, this good piece of legislation will provide Floridians with greater piece of mind as they go to work, go to school, and go about their daily lives.” As long as a business makes a good forth effort to comply with standards, such as the CDC, they will not face liability. The fear for the tourism industry specifically are frivolous lawsuits as a result of the pandemic.

The opposition to this law is the fear that since workers now have a significant burden of proof when bringing forth a claim, they might not get their justice in court. An argument could be made that this bill does not make any exceptions for businesses that might have been grossly negligent during the pandemic.

Posted On 3/9/2021

Posted On 3/2/2021

Rappeport & Rappeport, P.A. was established in 2021! We are a Florida law firm located in Polk County. Our law firm has a combined experience of 32 years in the legal industry. We foucs in immigration, family law, estate planning, business formation, property law, and criminal law. Thank you for reading this and we look forward to utilizing this platform!