SB 232 - Domestic Partnerships

• Establishes legal recognition of domestic partnerships in Florida between two individuals 18 years or older, with at least one being a state resident, requiring filing a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the circuit court clerk.

• Creates a domestic partnership registry maintained by circuit court clerks as a public record and grants circuit courts jurisdiction over dissolution, annulment, and related proceedings involving domestic partnerships.

• Extends to domestic partners the same legal rights, privileges, immunities, and responsibilities granted to married spouses under state law, including tax treatment, inheritance rights, and domestic violence protections, except where conflicting with federal law or tax-qualified employee benefit plans.

• Imposes fees for registering domestic partnerships ($61 total including $25 for Domestic Violence Trust Fund, $7.50 for Displaced Homemaker Trust Fund, and $4 for vital records) and for filing dissolutions (up to $10.50), with portions directed to the Department of Health and various trust funds.

• Makes filing a materially false Declaration of Domestic Partnership a first-degree misdemeanor and permits name changes through domestic partnership registration, with notice to the voter registration supervisor.