New Florida Law Offers Clarity in Workplace Discrimination Filings: What Employers Need to Know

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Florida just cleared up a longstanding question for employers facing state-law workplace discrimination claims. Employers and employees alike now have a clearer, more predictable deadline for when such claims can go to court. Indeed, HB 1407 should reduce the procedural fights that have clouded these cases for years. Some questions remain, however, including how the new deadlines apply to charges already in the pipeline. Here’s what changed, why it matters, and how to handle pending cases until the courts weigh in.

How Long Does an Employee Have to Sue?

Clarity from Lawmakers: Governor DeSantis recently signed CS/HB 1407 into law, and effective July 1, it amends the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA) to spell out exactly how long an employee has to sue after a state discrimination charge runs its course. The new law ends a confusing court split that left employers guessing whether a stale claim was dead or alive, and it aligns with Florida’s broader push to reduce the time and money businesses spend fighting over procedural issues.

State and Federal Filings: Under the FCRA, an employee who believes they were the victim of workplace discrimination may file a charge with the Florida Commission on Human Relations (FCHR) within 365 days of the alleged violation. In practice, most charges are “dual-filed,” meaning the same charge is shared with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The FCHR then has 180 days to investigate and decide whether there is “reasonable cause” to believe discrimination occurred. If the FCHR finds reasonable cause, the employee may take the claim to court (or request an administrative hearing). And if the FCHR never reaches a decision within those 180 days, the employee may still proceed to court.

Addressing the Confusion: The prior version of the law left ambiguity about how long an employee actually had to get a state-law claim into court:

  • Federal discrimination claims come with a strict deadline of 90 days to sue after the EEOC issues a Notice of Right to Sue.
  • The FCRA was far less clear. It set a one-year deadline measured from the FCHR’s “reasonable cause determination” but said nothing about the far more common dual-filed situation, where the EEOC handles the investigation and issues its own Notice of Right to Sue without the FCHR ever making a separate determination.
  • Under long-standing Florida Supreme Court precedent, an employee whose charge drew no FCHR determination within 180 days instead got the benefit of Florida’s general four-year statute of limitations for statutory claims. In practice, the answer could be one or four years, depending on what the agencies did and how a court read the statute. So in the most common dual-filed situation when the FCHR did not make a determination, did the one-year deadline ever kick in, or did employees really have four years to sue?

Disagreement Among Courts: Florida’s appellate courts were split on the question, with the 1st and 4th District Courts of Appeal reaching different conclusions about when – or whether – the one-year deadline applied in dual-filed cases. That confusion left employers litigating the deadline itself before ever reaching the merits.

What the New Law Does

HB 1407 fixes the issue by putting two clear deadlines into the statute:

  • If the FCHR issues a reasonable cause determination, or the EEOC issues a Notice of Right to Sue, the employee must sue within one year of the earlier of those two dates. This makes clear that an EEOC Notice of Right to Sue starts the one-year clock, which was an open question before.
  • If neither the FCHR nor the EEOC acts within 180 days of the charge being filed, the employee must sue within 18 months of the filing date. This closes the gap that had allowed open-ended exposure when an agency sat on a charge.

The law also makes a smaller, practical change by removing the requirement that the FCHR send certain notices by registered mail. The agency can now use regular mail, which the Legislature’s own staff analysis marked as a cost-saver for the Commission.

The bottom line for employers is a defined – and in many cases shorter – window of exposure, and far less room for plaintiffs to argue that a long-dormant claim is still timely.

Impact on Employers

Beyond the obvious benefit of predictability, the new framework matters in several important ways:

  • It shortens the period of potential liability on charges that previously could linger under the longer general limitations period, which may lead to more efficient resolution.
  • It gives both employers and employees a firm endpoint and removes a recurring disagreement over the statute of limitations question itself, which forced employers to spend time and legal fees litigating procedure rather than substance.

This approach is consistent with Florida’s recent track record of legislation aimed at trimming litigation costs for businesses.

What We Expect Next

The law does not expressly address whether these new deadlines apply to charges filed before July 1, 2026, where the lawsuit comes afterward. That question may be litigated, so employers with a claim that straddles the effective date should consult counsel before assuming any particular deadline controls.

Conclusion

We will continue to monitor developments as the FCHR and the courts put the law into practice. Make sure you are subscribed to Fisher Phillips’ Insight System to get the most up-to-date information direct to your inbox. If you have questions about how the new law affects a pending charge or your broader compliance strategy, contact the authors of this insight, your Fisher Phillips attorney, or one of our Florida offices in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Pensacola, Tampa, or Sarasota.


#TAGS:

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), reasonable cause, workplace discrimination, Notice of Right to Sue, 

Source(s):

New Florida Law Offers Clarity in Workplace Discrimination Filings: What Employers Need to Know. (2026). Fisher Phillips; Fisher Phillips LLP. https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/insights/insights/new-florida-law-offers-clarity-in-workplace-discrimination-filings

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