The Florida Senate Is Protecting Our Children, Why Isn’t the House? April 2, 2009

The rich and powerful tourism industry here in Florida wants to get away with injuring children. Orlando businesses such as Walt Disney World and Sea World are among the many businesses paying lots of money to influence the Florida Legislature to pass a law that would allow them to get away with negligently injuring or killing a child.

However, the Senate Judiciary Committee has refused to hear the bill in two weeks of meetings which means that it can not advance to the Senate floor for a full vote yet. For some reason, the House of Representatives has already OK’d the bill for a full vote.

Of course, a bill needs to be passed by both houses to become a law and fortunately that’s a long way off for now. The bill the tourist industry wants so badly would overturn a Florida Supreme Court decision and allow parents to waive their children’s right to sue businesses if the children are injured.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled that such waivers are against public policy because they shield businesses whose negligence leads to a child’s injury. The justices said that allowing parents to waive their children’s right to sue eliminates an important incentive for businesses to protect their customers from faulty rides and other potentially dangerous activities.

When are we going to stop allowing powerful businesses to shed responsibility for their actions? This country champions personal responsibility and I hope we can continue that tradition by not passing this bill.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks to see how this bill fares. The legislative session doesn’t end until May 1.