New laws take effect this week
New laws take effect this week
Of all the new laws signed into effect by the Legislature and Governor Charlie Crist this year, the most controversial remains the new gun law.
The new gun law prohibits private and public employers from banning legally owned and permitted firearms that are locked inside vehicles in employee parking lots. Employers are not
permitted to ask their employees, visitors, or customers if they have a firearm in their car, cannot search the vehicle and cannot refuse to hire or take action against any one because of a firearm in the vehicle.
The law does not apply to schools, correctional institutions, nuclear power plants or any facility involved in the manufacture, storage, use or transportation of combustible or explosive materials regulated by state or federal law.
The law is being challenged in federal court by the Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
Other new laws include:
Health insurance: Dependents up to age 30 and still in college catch a break and can be covered under their parents' health insurance policy. A low-cost no-frills health insurance coverage for about $150 a month for people who have been without it for at least six months will be available. Small businesses of 50 or fewer employees now will have to provide a variety of health coverage plans.
Seniors: Aggravated battery of an elderly or disabled adult is elevated from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony.
Children: A second conviction of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child younger than 12 by a adult is punishable by a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.
Crime: Stronger anti-gang laws include strengthening penalties and making it against the law to use an electronic device such as a cell phone to plan crimes. Those on parole, probation, or court-ordered supervision along with inmates in jail must provide samples for DNA testing so their DNA will be included in the statewide DNA data bank. The amount of plants being cultivated in a marijuana grow house is reduced from 300 to 25 or more to qualify for a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. DUI fines will increase.
Court costs: Fees will increase. Filing a small claims action for more than $2,500 will go from $255 to $300; eviction increases from $80 to $270; divorce, from $364 to $409; adoptions, from $294 to $343 and probating a will of an estate over $1,000, from $205 to $230.
Education: Bullying or harassment of any K-12 public school student or employee is prohibited during school-related activities. The state Department of Education must adopt an anti-bullying policy by October 1 and all school districts must adopt one by December 1. School boards must implement longer periods of physical education.
