---
type: "Bill"
title: "Evidentiary Standards for Actions Arising During an Emergency"
description: "Evidentiary Standards for Actions Arising During an Emergency; Providing that specified actions taken by a business during certain declared emergencies may not be used as evidence in certain civil causes of action, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2022"
identifier: "SB 542"
citation: "Florida SB 542 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["labor"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2022-99"
primary_sponsors: ["Rodriguez"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 38
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-10-18"
last_action: "2022-05-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/62f6bcf9-d441-4525-9ef7-1b8279ca6175"
source_url: "https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/542/ByCategory"
source_hash: "753d355c5da467cb2c4f8f300aee80ad0f9fdf01898dcf98770d5fb87363ec7c"
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 542 (2022) — Evidentiary Standards for Actions Arising During an Emergency

Evidentiary Standards for Actions Arising During an Emergency; Providing that specified actions taken by a business during certain declared emergencies may not be used as evidence in certain civil causes of action, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2022-99.

## Version chain

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

1. **S 542 Filed** (filed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/542/BillText/Filed/HTML)
2. **S 542 e1** (engrossed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/542/BillText/e1/HTML)
3. **S 542 er** (enrolled) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/542/BillText/er/HTML)

## Votes

- Returning Messages — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage, Third Reading — **115–2** (pass) · lower
- Favorable — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable — **10–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Third Reading — **35–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Rodriguez — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-10-18** Filed `filing`
- **2021-11-03** Referred to Commerce and Tourism; Judiciary; Rules `referral-committee`
- **2021-11-22** On Committee agenda-- Commerce and Tourism, 11/30/21, 9:00 am, 110 Senate Building
- **2021-11-30** Favorable by Commerce and Tourism; YEAS 9 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-11-30** Now in Judiciary
- **2022-01-03** On Committee agenda-- Judiciary, 01/10/22, 4:00 pm, 412 Knott Building
- **2022-01-10** Favorable by Judiciary; YEAS 10 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-01-11** Now in Rules
- **2022-01-11** Introduced `introduction`
- **2022-01-14** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 01/20/22, 9:30 am, 412 Knott Building
- **2022-01-20** Favorable by- Rules; YEAS 15 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-01-20** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2022-01-24** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 01/27/22
- **2022-01-27** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2022-01-27** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2022-01-27** Passed; YEAS 35 NAYS 1 `passage`
- **2022-01-27** Immediately certified
- **2022-01-27** In Messages
- **2022-02-17** Bill referred to House Calendar
- **2022-02-17** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (2/22/2022)
- **2022-02-17** 1st Reading (Original Filed Version)
- **2022-02-22** Temporarily postponed, on 2nd Reading
- **2022-02-22** Added to Second Reading Calendar
- **2022-02-24** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (3/1/2022)
- **2022-03-01** Substituted for HB 411
- **2022-03-01** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2022-03-01** Amendment 782315 adopted
- **2022-03-01** Placed on 3rd reading
- **2022-03-01** Added to Third Reading Calendar
- **2022-03-02** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2022-03-02** Passed as amended; YEAS 115, NAYS 2 `passage`
- **2022-03-02** In returning messages
- **2022-03-08** Concurred in 1 amendment(s) (782315)
- **2022-03-08** Passed as amended; YEAS 39 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2022-03-08** Ordered engrossed, then enrolled
- **2022-05-05** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
- **2022-05-10** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2022-05-11** Chapter No. 2022-99

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/62f6bcf9-d441-4525-9ef7-1b8279ca6175`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).