The public records lawsuit against the Florida Department of Health over the disappearance of detailed COVID-19 data is on hold after the plaintiff’s lead attorney suffered a family tragedy. Meanwhile, though, the state has filed motions to scuttle the case, claiming the information is both confidential and doesn’t exist in a form that can be publicly released.
The lawsuit, brought by state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, and the nonprofit Florida Center for Government Accountability, had been scheduled for a hearing Wednesday and Thursday before the Second Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee. But the hearing was canceled after the mother of the plaintiff’s lead counsel, Andrea Flynn Mogensen, died unexpectedly late last week.
It’s not clear when the hearing will be rescheduled. Judge John Cooper, assigned to the case, said previously he will be unavailable until November.
