---
title: NAIFA-FL Gets Behind COVID-19 Liability Shield Bills
description: The legislation would protect businesses acting in good faith against a potential flood of lawsuits.
---

[NAIFA's Advocacy in Action (AIA) Blog ](https://advocacy.naifa.org/news)

# [NAIFA-FL Gets Behind COVID-19 Liability Shield Bills](https://advocacy.naifa.org/news/naifa-fl-gets-behind-covid-19-liability-shield-bills)

 Written by [NAIFA](https://advocacy.naifa.org/news/author/naifa) | 1/20/21 2:18 PM

NAIFA-FL supports two bills that provide several COVID-19-related liability protections for businesses, educational institutions, government entities, religious organizations, and other entities.

In the House, [H.B. 7](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/7) was approved by the Civil Justice Subcommittee on January 13 and is awaiting consideration in both the Pandemics and Public Emergencies Committee and the Judiciary Committee.

In the Senate, [S.B. 72](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/72) will be heard in the Judiciary Committee on January 25.

Under the bills, a covered entity that makes a good faith effort to substantially comply with applicable COVID-19 guidance is immune from civil liability from a COVID-19-related civil action. The bill also provides that for any COVID-19-related civil action against a covered entity, a plaintiff must:

- Plead his or her complaint with particularity.
- Submit, at the time of filing suit, a physician's affidavit confirming the physician's belief that the plaintiff's COVID-19-related injury occurred because of the defendant's conduct.
- Prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant was at least grossly negligent.

The bill's liability protections would not apply to health care providers, such as a hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or other health care-related entities. The bill provides a one-year statute of limitations for COVID-19-related claims. For a plaintiff whose cause of action has already accrued, the one-year period does not begin to run until the bill becomes effective.

As states grapple with different solutions to quell business owners’ fears of COVID-19 legal liability, NAIFA is encouraging lawmakers to pass bills that would enact liability immunity for businesses to protect them from a barrage of civil lawsuits. In at least a dozen states, lawmakers have moved to adopt their own versions of liability shields.

[View full post](https://advocacy.naifa.org/news/naifa-fl-gets-behind-covid-19-liability-shield-bills)

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