WITH A FOCUS ON LAW ENFORCEMENT, Capital City Consulting works on a vast array of criminal justice issues. From sheriff’s offices to judges and prison operators to police chiefs, our representation of Florida’s best & bravest involves working relationships with legislators and staff of criminal justice and judiciary committees, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Departments of Corrections, Juvenile Justice, Law Enforcement, and Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles.
Utilizing our appropriations expertise, CCC secures state funding each legislative session for projects that improve the safety and welfare of Florida’s citizens, from drones that locate the missing or endangered, to crime detection and prevention technology. Several of our consultants have also worked on Cabinet and executive branch matters involving Florida’s criminal justice and public safety agencies, giving clients a distinct advantage through firsthand knowledge of state policymaking and agency operations. Lastly, our team also has procurement expertise to secure contracts for public-private partnerships, or unseat incumbents whose services do not sufficiently optimize public safety.
- PBSO Unmanned Aerial Response Team: $500,000
We successfully lobbied to ensure SB 2500 includes $500,000 for the PBSO Unmanned Aerial Response Team
- Law Enforcement Drone Grant Program at FL Department of Law Enforcement: $25 million
SB 2502, the budget implementing bill provides that the funds to law enforcement agencies will be provided to those that turn in drones that are not in compliance with this section. To be eligible, the drone must have not reached its endof-life and still be in working condition. Funds shall be provided per drone based upon the drone’s current value. Grant funds may only be used to purchase drones that are in compliance with this section. The Department of Law Enforcement shall expeditiously develop an application process and funds shall be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, determined by the date the department receives the application. The Department of Law Enforcement shall provide drones received through the drone grant replacement program to the Florida Center for Cybersecurity within the University of South Florida. The Florida Center for Cybersecurity shall analyze whether the drones present cybersecurity concerns and shall provide its findings or recommendations to the Department of Management Services regarding the drone’s safety or security.
- Raising Pay for Florida’s Prosecutors to Match Their Peers
Capital City Consulting represents the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the statewide voice for all 20 of Florida’s elected State Attorneys, in Tallahassee. Assistant State Attorneys had fallen behind their counterparts in other government legal offices, making it difficult for circuits to recruit and retain prosecutors against competing offers from other local and state agencies offering enhanced pay. Our team built the legislative case for closing that gap, securing a $10,000 per-attorney salary increase for Assistant State Attorneys statewide to bring their compensation in line with other government lawyers. For circuits facing the steepest cost-of-living pressures, we also helped secure a doubling of competitive area differential (CAD) funding. Together, these wins reflect sustained, relationship-driven advocacy translating directly into budget outcomes that strengthen prosecutors’ offices across the state.
- Property Insurance Reform
Capital City Consulting has been involved in all the major property insurance legislative packages over the last two decades. Ashley Kalifeh has authored a number of papers on the proliferation of assignment of benefits lawsuits, the persistent abuse of the one-way attorney’s fee statute, and has published a host of empirical data that formed the underpinnings of both SB 2D and 2A.
- Civil Justice Overhaul
HB 837, signed into law on March 24, 2023, was the most comprehensive legal liability reform bill in a generation. As a result of steadfast work to expose serious inequities in Florida’s tort system, the Legislature, under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, reformed laws related to the pricing of medical damages, third party bad faith, negligent security, incentives for multifamily buildings to comply with safety procedures and crime prevention audits, the statute of limitations for negligence cases, and Florida’s comparative fault system. Ashley Kalifeh led the lobbying effort on behalf of the business community, through her representation of our financial services clients, the Florida Justice Reform Institute, Associated Industries of Florida, the Coalition of Attainable Housing Providers, and others.
- Auto Glass Fixes
Assignments of benefits were a particularly pervasive problem in auto glass repair work. Certain shops were using written instruments to transfer an insurance policyholder’s legal standing and then weaponizing that standing to inflate insurance costs across the entire auto market. Using data-driven evidence of the problem, and after publishing a host of reports on the aberrations in this coverage, we were able to successfully advocate for pro-consumer reforms that remove abuse from the system, require that safety and calibration standards are met, and ensure policyholders retain their insurance rights.
- Stopping “Robocall” Litigation Gamesmanship
Robocalling is an annoying and often pernicious practice that both federal and Florida law correctly penalize. However, a loophole in Florida’s Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) entrapped legitimate businesses who were responding to affirmative requests from consumers to receive information. In 2023, the Florida Legislature smoothed the application of the FTSA to ensure that actual robocallers would continue to be punished and sued, but that Florida-based businesses communicating with existing customers or those who requested contact, could not be ensnared by “gotcha” lawsuits. Capital City Consulting help lead the business community’s campaign to ensure this commonsense application of the FTSA.