Terms Used In Florida Statutes 556.115

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.

(1) Sunshine State One-Call of Florida, Inc., shall create a voluntary alternative dispute resolution program. The program shall be available to all member operators, excavators, and other stakeholders, such as locators, utility service users, and governmental or quasi-governmental entities, for purposes of resolving disputes arising from excavation activities, including, but not limited to, loss of services, down time, delays, loss of use of facilities during restoration or replacement, and similar economic disruptions, exclusive of penalties imposed under other provisions of this act.
(2) The alternative dispute resolution program created by Sunshine State One-Call of Florida, Inc., shall include mediation, arbitration, or other appropriate processes, including the use of the services of the Division of Administrative Hearings.
(3) The costs of using the program shall be borne by the voluntary users, and the voluntary users shall choose the form of alternative dispute resolution to be used. If arbitration is used, the users shall decide whether the arbitration will be binding.
(4) Unless binding arbitration is the chosen method of alternative dispute resolution, the users or any one of such users may end the process at any time and exercise the right to proceed in a court of competent jurisdiction or before the Division of Administrative Hearings.
(5) This section does not change the basis for civil liability for damages.
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