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NEW LAW DISAPPOINTS
CERTAIN ATTORNEYS
By
Jan Bergemann
Published May 7, 2021
Quite a few Florida attorneys were already
salivating over the idea to sue associations for owners willing
to sue their association claiming that the negligence of the
association was responsible for them getting infected with
COVID-19. Make no mistake, anybody infected with the virus could
have caught it anywhere, no matter how careful the person was.
Since the incubation time was estimated to be between 4 -- 11
days.
We all know that these would have been
frivolous lawsuits since it's nearly impossible to prove where
anybody caught the virus since symptoms only show up a few days
after the person got infected. But nevertheless, attorneys would
have collected easy fees, hoping the insurance comonaies would
in the end settle the lawsuit to stop the ever increasing legal
fees.
I guess the salivating stopped quickly when
Governor Ron DeSantis signed
SB 72 (Civil Liability for
Damages Relating to COVID-19) into law. The
provisions of the bill -- effective 3/29/2021 -- should stop
attorneys from talking potential clients into filing such
frivolous lawsuits.
Even if some attorneys still claim that this
bill only protects businesses, not community associations, they
will find out quickly that they were wrong, latest in court.
The Pandemic created a bad time for all of
us, there is no doubt about it. But it's time to get over it and
get back to our normal life as we knew it before the Pandemic.
WITHOUT FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS!
LATEST NEWS FROM THE CDC:
Fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear a mask!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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