Due to the size of the document, the 2008 Legislative Summary is available via download in the following formats:
Microsoft Word 2003
Adobe PDF Format
This year's Legislative Summary now contains hyperlinks to the actual House and Senate Bills. You may access the bill text by double-clicking on the underlined "http" address.
Your browser must have the Adobe Reader Plugin to access this site. If you do not have a copy installed, you may download the free version at
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
This Legal Bulletin contains brief summaries of most laws of interest to the Florida law enforcement community that were passed during the regular session of the 2008 Florida Legislature. Since this document contains only summaries, you should read the entire content of any law in which you have particular interest by clicking the hyperlink addresses as furthered explained below. At the end of the summaries you will find an index to help you locate laws by subject, tables to help you cross-reference bill numbers to their chapter law numbers, and indications of the laws’ effective dates. Due to differences in printers and screen settings, the index page number references are accurate only when the Summary is printed in hard copy using the Word Version.
This year’s Summary is the product of the combined efforts of many within the FDLE Office of General Counsel. Special thanks to FDLE attorneys Craig Rockenstein, Sharon Traxler, Linton Eason, Fern Rosenwasser, Grace Jaye, Merribeth Holmes, and Jim Martin for the hours they spent reviewing bills and preparing most of the text of the Summary. The Legislative Summary is posted on the General Counsel portion of FDLE's Internet web site, which may be found at:
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/ogc.
The Summary includes Internet hyperlinks to the text of the bills. If you access our Summary via the Internet, you can link to the bills directly. If you have a printed copy of the Summary, type the link into your internet browser to access bills of interest. You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to read the bills. It may be downloaded from
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
Please note that as we are providing links to the text of the bills, our summaries are intentionally less detailed than in the past.
We have not discussed every element of every summarized law. Do not rely solely on our summary for a complete understanding of any bill! Law enforcement officers should check with their chain of command and agency legal advisors to determine the effect specific legislation may have upon agency operations and policies. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Michael Ramage
FDLE General Counsel
P.O. Box 1489
Tallahassee, FL 32302
(850) 410-7676
FDLE is committed to Service, Integrity, Respect, and Quality
Legislative information, including copies of the laws as passed may be accessed on the Florida Legislature's web site. Once at the site, select the bill versions ending in "er" and the greatest numeral which is the "enrolled" version as sent to the Governor. The Legislature's Internet address is:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us
You may also obtain printed copies of laws as passed from:
House Documents Office
Room 334, The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
(850) 488-7097
SunCom 278-7097
Senate Documents Office
Room 304, The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100
(850) 487-5285
SunCom 277-5285