Bill requiring safe-exchange locations for minor hits the governor’s desk
Rep. Hillary Cassel
The clock is running for Gov. Ron DeSantis to decide the fate of a Family Law Section priority bill that would require safe-exchange locations for minor children.
HB 385 by Democratic Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Hollywood attorney, and Republican Rep. Joel Rudman, a Navarre physician, was among 27 bills lawmakers forwarded to DeSantis late Tuesday.
“Cassie Carli’s Law,” honors the memory of a 37-year-old Northwest Florida mother who vanished in 2022 after exchanging her toddler daughter in a restaurant parking lot.
Rep. Joel Rudman
The woman’s body was discovered six weeks later in Alabama and the child’s father is facing charges.
The measure would authorize courts to require a safe-exchange location if there is “competent substantial evidence that there is a risk or an imminent threat of harm to one parent or the child during the actual exchange.”
The bill requires sheriffs in every county to designate a portion of their parking lot as a safe-exchange location.
Another provision would require petitions for protective orders to contain a checkbox to request a safe-exchange location.
Miami attorney Anya Stern, speaking on behalf of the Family Law Section, told a House panel the bill would protect parents and children without creating due process concerns.
“The family law judges and general magistrates will identify these high-conflict families,” she said.
DeSantis has until June 5 to sign the bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.
