Families who lost loved ones in the Parkland school shooting likely won’t find monetary relief from the Florida Legislature this year.
Bills seeking to avert litigation by creating a taxpayer-backed assistance fund haven’t gotten a hearing, and they aren’t likely to pass this session, which ends on May 3.
One of the measures — sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Lauren Book — would have created a $160 million compensation fund that families of the 34 people killed and wounded in the Parkland massacre could have accessed if they signed agreements not to pursue litigation.
On Wednesday, 13 law firms representing 26 families and survivors announced they are filing 20 lawsuits against the Broward County school system, sheriff’s office and others alleging negligent behavior that led to the shooting.
A spokeswoman for Book said the senator wasn’t available Wednesday to discuss why the compensation bills didn’t advance in the Legislature. At a news conference Wednesday, families blamed the school system and the sheriff’s office, saying they were working behind the scenes to block the Legislature from approving a settlement.
When the legislation was introduced, Book said she wanted to spare families the trauma of further court proceedings by setting aside taxpayer funds they could access. The measure included an admission that “multiple failures at various levels of government” culminated in the mass shooting and contributed to its magnitude.
Such a fund, though, would have been an unprecedented step by the Legislature and would have set an expectation that victims of future national tragedies would be entitled to taxpayer assistance, said Kenneth Feinberg, who administered funds for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Pulse nightclub shooting.
If the families succeed in court, Florida’s sovereign immunity law limits the liability of the state and its agencies to $200,000 for a single victim and $300,000 for all victims in the same incident.
The Florida Supreme Court is reviewing whether mass shootings should be treated as one incident or multiple events.
If each shooting is treated separately, each victim would be entitled to a maximum of $200,000. Otherwise, if it’s a single event, $300,000 would be divided among all the victims.
Payments above that amount can be authorized through a claim bill, but those bills can languish for years in the Legislature.
Staff writer Rafael Olmeda contributed to this report.
sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher