---
type: "Bill"
title: "Business Organizations"
description: "Business Organizations; Specifying that certain documents accepted by the Department of State for filing are effective on the date the documents are accepted by the department; revising the required contents of a meeting notice relating to the removal of a director by shareholders; authorizing a domestic corporation to acquire one or more classes or series of shares under certain circumstances; authorizing the department to direct certain interrogatories to certain corporations and to officers or directors of certain corporations, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2020"
identifier: "SB 838"
citation: "Florida SB 838 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["business organizations"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2020-32"
primary_sponsors: ["Simmons"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 38
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-11-07"
last_action: "2020-06-19"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3b3e461e-2a71-402f-bf07-cb4a46232899"
source_url: "http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/838/ByCategory"
source_hash: "7054a741ff6249ae6cd16c8ff5d0ed58e716f04130fcc635522b4277c03a695a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-fl"]
---

# Florida SB 838 (2020) — Business Organizations

Business Organizations; Specifying that certain documents accepted by the Department of State for filing are effective on the date the documents are accepted by the department; revising the required contents of a meeting notice relating to the removal of a director by shareholders; authorizing a domestic corporation to acquire one or more classes or series of shares under certain circumstances; authorizing the department to direct certain interrogatories to certain corporations and to officers or directors of certain corporations, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2020-32.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **S 838 Filed** (filed) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/838/BillText/Filed/HTML)
2. **S 838 c1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/838/BillText/c1/HTML)
3. **S 838 er** (enrolled) — [source](http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/838/BillText/er/HTML)

## Votes

- Favorable — **16–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage — **109–0** (pass) · lower
- Passage, Third Reading — **114–0** (pass) · lower
- Third Reading — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable with Committee Substitute — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable — **6–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Simmons — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-11-07** Filed `filing`
- **2019-11-21** Referred to Commerce and Tourism; Judiciary; Rules `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-09** On Committee agenda-- Commerce and Tourism, 01/14/20, 2:30 pm, 110 Senate Building
- **2020-01-14** Introduced `introduction`
- **2020-01-14** CS by Commerce and Tourism; YEAS 5 NAYS 0
- **2020-01-15** Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
- **2020-01-16** Now in Judiciary
- **2020-01-22** CS by Commerce and Tourism read 1st time
- **2020-01-23** On Committee agenda-- Judiciary, 01/28/20, 4:00 pm, 110 Senate Building
- **2020-01-28** Favorable by Judiciary; YEAS 6 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-01-29** Now in Rules
- **2020-01-31** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 02/05/20, 9:30 am, 110 Senate Building
- **2020-02-05** Favorable by- Rules; YEAS 16 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-02-05** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2020-02-17** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 02/19/20
- **2020-02-19** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-19** Placed on 3rd reading
- **2020-02-26** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-26** CS passed; YEAS 40 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2020-03-03** In Messages
- **2020-03-06** Referred to Calendar `referral-committee`
- **2020-03-06** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 03/09/20
- **2020-03-06** Received
- **2020-03-09** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-03-09** Amendment(s) adopted (145281, 556959)
- **2020-03-09** Placed on 3rd reading
- **2020-03-10** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-03-10** CS passed as amended; YEAS 114 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2020-03-10** In returning messages
- **2020-03-12** Refused to concur in 2 amendment(s) (145281, 556959)
- **2020-03-12** Requested House to recede
- **2020-03-12** In returning messages
- **2020-03-13** Receded from 2 amendment(s) (145281, 556959)
- **2020-03-13** CS passed; YEAS 109 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2020-03-13** Ordered enrolled
- **2020-06-03** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
- **2020-06-18** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2020-06-19** Chapter No. 2020-32

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3b3e461e-2a71-402f-bf07-cb4a46232899`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).