News & Events

Former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan died in Miami on Thursday, March 4, 2021. He was 87 and was Florida’s 73rd justice since statehood was granted in 1845. In the 1990s, Justice Kogan, a former prosecutor, private practitioner, and circuit court judge, earned international praise for his “Access Initiative” — which used the…

Critics of proposed amendments to the Bar rule governing the IOTA program fail to recognize that the amendments comply with a Supreme Court instruction to the task force that drafted the changes. That court instruction, according to the Task Force on the Distribution of IOTA Funds, was to “give priority consideration to providing direct legal…

A COVID-19 liability shield for medical providers is continuing to advance in the Senate, despite warnings by critics that it would put some of Florida’s most vulnerable residents at risk. The Health Policy Committee voted 5-4 on March 3 to approve SB 74 by Judiciary Chair Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg. When the nation’s supply of…

The second Florida House committee meeting on a proposed bill to toughen criminal penalties for rioting went about as the first. Dozens of people showed up to speak against it and were given a minute or less each to testify because of time constraints on the meeting. Backers called the bill necessary, while Democratic members…