SB 976 Florida Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Court-appointed Psychologists

Summary

Court-appointed Psychologists; Requiring a party to seek disqualification of a court-appointed psychologist before filing an administrative complaint against the psychologist; providing for disqualification motions; revising provisions for award of costs and attorney fees in supplemental actions against court-appointed psychologists, etc.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 4, 2025 Last action Apr 29, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

S 976 Filed → S 976 c1 · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was revised from a version requiring social investigators to submit detailed reports to a committee substitute focusing on court-appointed psychologists. The changes shift the focus from social investigators to psychologists and modify the requirements for filing complaints against them, including adding a requirement to seek disqualification before filing an administrative complaint and revising fee allocation rules.

Scope change

The bill's scope narrowed from covering both social investigators and psychologists to focusing primarily on court-appointed psychologists, removing the social investigator reporting requirements entirely.

REQUIREMENT

Removed all provisions related to court-appointed social investigators and their reporting requirements that were in the original version.

Added a requirement that individuals must move to disqualify a psychologist before filing an administrative complaint against them.

ENFORCEMENT

Changed the complaint filing process from requiring a reasonable investigation certificate to requiring a disqualification motion first.

FISCAL

Revised fee allocation rules to make the claimant responsible for costs if the psychologist is not held liable, rather than focusing on sanctions for bad faith filings.

TIMELINE

Changed the effective date from unspecified to July 1, 2025.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 22, 2025

Upper · Passed

Favorable by- Fiscal Policy; YEAS 18 NAYS 0

upper

Apr 17, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Fiscal Policy, 04/22/25, 11:00 am, 412 Knott Building

upper

Apr 10, 2025

Upper · Passed

Favorable by Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services; YEAS 8 NAYS 0

upper

Apr 7, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services, 04/10/25, 8:30 am, 412 Knott Building

upper

Apr 3, 2025

Upper · Passed

Now in Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services

upper

Apr 2, 2025

Upper · Passed

Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)

upper

Mar 27, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Children, Families, and Elder Affairs, 04/01/25, 4:00 pm, 301 Senate Building

upper

Mar 4, 2025

Introduced

upper

Feb 28, 2025

Committee

Referred to Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services; Fiscal Policy

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors