Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The 2025 Florida Legislative Session commenced on Tuesday, March 4, with over 1,800 pieces of legislation filed. During the 60-day session, many of these bills will be considered, potentially impacting your business or industry in various ways.

Each week, the Rotunda Report will provide a high-level summary of what occurred in Session during the prior week. A practicing attorney in the related industry will also provide a deeper analysis of a single piece of legislation in our Legislation Spotlight. In Week 6’s Legislation Spotlight, Stearns Weaver Miller attorneys Thomas Aubin and Matthew Podolnick provide an analysis of SB 734 and HB 6017, which seek to overturn Florida’s long-standing ban on adult children and parents of adult children receiving noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases.

Week 6 Recap and Week 7 Preview

Several bills that have been previously covered in the Rotunda Report passed out of their last committee stops, and are headed to the Senate or House floor, or are waiting in messages.

• Affordable Housing: SB 1730 filed by Senator Calatayud was favorably voted out of the Rules Committee on April 8, 2025. It will be heard by the full Senate on April 16, 2025. HB 943, the related House bill filed by Representative V. Lopez, passed favorably out of the Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee on April 9, 2025. It is now in its last stop in the Commerce Committee.
• Wetland Mitigation Bank Credits: SB 492 filed by Senator McClain and companion HB 1175 filed by Representative Duggan seek to address wetland mitigation bank credit deserts in Florida. SB 492 is now in Fiscal Policy, and HB 1175 is on the Second Reading Calendar in the House.
• Emergency Preparedness and Response: SB 180 filed by Senator DiCeglie and HB 1535 filed by Representative McFarland address Florida’s statewide and local responses to emergency and natural disasters. The Senate favorably passed SB 180, which is now in messages in the House. HB 1535 is in its last committee stop in State Affairs.

Bills that have not moved through one committee, or do not have a House or Senate companion, are more than likely dead at this point in Session. Though anything can happen in the remaining weeks, unless stalled bills are a leadership priority, the odds of passage are slim.

The House and Senate Tax Packages are expected to be released over the coming days. The Senate Finance and Tax Committee introduced its placeholder bill on April 10, with the full version expected shortly. Typically, the House Ways and Means Committee introduces the tax package that covers a large range of issues including revising technical changes to Florida’s Tax Code, reducing various types of state taxes, and creating new tax exemptions and credits.  

Legislation Spotlight:

Recovery of Noneconomic Damages by Adult Children and Parents of Adult Children in Medical Malpractice

SB 734 and HB 6017

Thomas Aubin and Matthew Podolnick

SB 734, filed by Senator Yarborough, and HB 6017, filed by Representatives Trabulsy and J. Lopez, expand the application of the Florida Wrongful Death Act by repealing provisions that prohibit certain parents and children of a patient who died due to medical negligence from recovering noneconomic damages. If enacted, a decedent’s adult children, and parents of adult decedents, may recover noneconomic damages.

Under existing law, all of a decedent’s statutory survivors may recover some economic damages for the loss of the decedent. However, there is a tiered priority of classes of survivors who may recover noneconomic damages, which notably includes damages for a survivor’s pain and suffering, for the decedent’s wrongful death. The long-standing law banning adult children and parents of adult children from receiving noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits involving the death of their parents or children, is one the Florida Legislature has long sought to change.

During the 2024 Legislative Session, SB 248 filed by Senator Yarborough, and HB 77 filed by Representative Roach, sought to expand the application of the Florida Wrongful Death Act in an effort to address the ban. These legislative efforts fell short after Senator Yarborough filed an amendment that placed caps on damages that could be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits—a provision that was not supported by Representative Roach. However, the broad support this legislation received allowed the issue to emerge again during the 2025 Legislative Session, and these bills have been steadily moving through the process.

Unlike during the 2024 Legislative Session, the two bills simply repeal the exceptions to recovering in wrongful death suits by certain parents and children of decedents, and no caps have been added. HB 6017 passed favorably through its three committees, was voted favorably by the House, and was received by the Senate Rules Committee on April 2, 2025. SB 734 passed favorably out of all committee stops and is on the Second Reading Calendar. Based on the legislation’s current trajectory, it is likely that the bills will be passed by both chambers, and sent to the Governor in the coming weeks.

The Government Affairs Team at Stearns Weaver Miller, in conjunction with the Medical Malpractice Group, is actively monitoring all aspects of these possible changes. We will continue to provide updates on the proposed changes, including the possible impacts on Florida healthcare facilities.