Florida Senate - 2011                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for SB 866
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 883380                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  03/30/2011           .                                
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       The Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability
       (Bogdanoff) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete lines 15 - 38
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Section 55.03, Florida Statutes, is amended to
    6  read:
    7         55.03 Judgments; rate of interest, generally.—
    8         (1) On December 1, March 1, June 1, and September 1 of each
    9  year, the Chief Financial Officer shall set the rate of interest
   10  that shall be payable on judgments or decrees for the calendar
   11  quarter year beginning January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1
   12  by averaging the discount rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of
   13  New York for the preceding 12 months year, then adding 400 500
   14  basis points to the averaged federal discount rate. The Chief
   15  Financial Officer shall inform the clerk of the courts and chief
   16  judge for each judicial circuit of the rate that has been
   17  established for the upcoming year. The interest rate established
   18  by the Chief Financial Officer shall take effect on the first
   19  day January 1 of each following calendar quarter year. Judgments
   20  obtained on or after January 1, 1995, shall use the previous
   21  statutory rate for time periods before January 1, 1995, for
   22  which interest is due and shall apply the rate set by the Chief
   23  Financial Officer for time periods after January 1, 1995, for
   24  which interest is due. This section does not Nothing contained
   25  herein shall affect a rate of interest established by written
   26  contract or obligation.
   27         (2) Any judgment for money damages or order for a judicial
   28  sale and any process or writ directed to a sheriff for execution
   29  shall bear, on its face, the rate of interest that is payable on
   30  the judgment. The rate of interest stated in the judgment, as
   31  adjusted in subsection (3), accrues on the judgment until it is
   32  paid.
   33         (3) The interest rate is established at the time a judgment
   34  is obtained, and such interest rate shall be adjusted quarterly
   35  in accordance with the interest rate set each quarter by the
   36  Chief Financial Officer remain the same until the judgment is
   37  paid.
   38         (4) A sheriff is shall not be required to docket and index
   39  or collect on any process, writ, judgment, or decree, described
   40  in subsection (2), and entered after the effective date of this
   41  act, unless such process, writ, judgment, or decree indicates
   42  the rate of interest. For purposes of this subsection, if the
   43  process, writ, judgment, or decree refers to the statutory rate
   44  of interest described in subsection (1), such reference shall be
   45  deemed to indicate the rate of interest.
   46  
   47  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   48  And the title is amended as follows:
   49  
   50         Delete lines 3 - 9
   51  and insert:
   52         55.03, F.S.; requiring the Chief Financial Officer to
   53         set the rate of interest payable on judgments or
   54         decrees for the calendar quarter on certain specified
   55         dates; revising the calculation of the interest rate;
   56         specifying the dates the rate of interest established
   57         by the Chief Financial Officer is to take effect;
   58         providing that the rate of interest is established at
   59         the time a judgment is obtained; requiring that such
   60         interest rate be adjusted quarterly in accordance with
   61         a certain interest rate;