{"id":242704,"date":"2026-04-23T02:40:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242704\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T02:40:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:40:06","slug":"new-florida-domestic-violence-laws-may-soon-take-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242704\/","title":{"rendered":"New Florida domestic violence laws may soon take effect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Domestic violence legislation passed this year by the state legislature would make major changes to domestic violence laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers passed CS 277 <a href=\"https:\/\/flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/277\/?Tab=BillHistory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">earlier this year<\/a>, and the bill currently awaits approval from Gov. Ron DeSantis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Florida&#8217;s House and Senate unanimously passed new domestic violence legislation\u00a0<br \/>\n<br \/>Changes include harsher penalties, more money for victims to relocate and more\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n<br \/>Survivor and author Michelle Jewsbury is happy to see Florida take this action\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some of the notable differences include <a href=\"https:\/\/flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/277\/BillText\/er\/PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">harsher penalties<\/a> for repeat domestic violence abusers and more money available for victims who need to relocate to escape abuse.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the <a href=\"https:\/\/flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/277\/Analyses\/h0277z.CRM.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">bill would give judges<\/a> more factors to consider in considering domestic violence injunctions. It would also require police to enter such injunctions into a statewide database that other agencies could search.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Survivor and author Michelle Jewsbury said this is a big step forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that in every state, they&#8217;re starting to understand how bad domestic violence is,&#8221; Jewsbury said.<\/p>\n<p>Jewsbury has written multiple books documenting both her situation and those of other survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She said what she went through is more common than people realize. That&#8217;s why she&#8217;s happy to see the Florida legislature vote to make changes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are so many individuals who are hurting, who have gone through injustice and domestic violence,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And if we continue to stay silent, then they&#8217;re going to continue to endure that pain.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Florida State Representative Lindsay Cross said this legislation is something she is proud to support.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We care about people&#8217;s safety, and we&#8217;re taking steps to reduce domestic violence,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We want to make sure that no one has to suffer from this.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Domestic violence legislation passed this year by the state legislature would make major changes to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1011,4318,3140,274,28,1190,2200,2204,2287,4628,115,99,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,2032,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-242704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","10":"tag-app-local-state-politics","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-human-interest","14":"tag-instagram-bn9","15":"tag-instagram-n13","16":"tag-local-politics","17":"tag-matt-lackritz","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-st-pete","21":"tag-st-pete-headlines","22":"tag-st-pete-news","23":"tag-st-petersburg","24":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","25":"tag-st-petersburg-news","26":"tag-tampa","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-trending-topics","29":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}