Terms Used In Florida Statutes 768.382

  • 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.
  • person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01

(1) For the purposes of this section, the term “structures specialist” means a person who has been trained by, and holds a current certification from, the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a structures specialist.
(2) An engineer as defined in s. 471.005, an architect as defined in s. 481.203, or a structures specialist, and any qualified business organization of such person, who voluntarily participates in emergency response activities by providing engineering or architectural services while under the direction of, or in connection with, a community emergency response team, a local emergency management agency, the Division of Emergency Management, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency in response to a declared federal, state, or local emergency, may not be held liable for any personal injury, wrongful death, property damage, or other economic loss related to his or her acts or omissions in the performance of his or her services, unless the act or omission constituted gross negligence or willful misconduct.
(3) The immunity from liability under this section also applies to any person who is licensed or registered as an engineer or architect in any other jurisdiction and who is rendering aid in this state as a member of a mobile support unit of another state.
(4) The immunity from liability under this section applies only to services provided within 90 days of the first declaration of a particular federal, state, or local emergency.