Opinion ID: 1862373
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Professor Dore's Article

Text: Judge Cope's dissent relied heavily upon Professor Dore's influential 1986 law review article, [4] which is apparently considered an authoritative source on Florida's administrative statutes. Indeed, it has been cited approvingly in at least nine Florida appellate opinions, [5] not including Judge Cope's dissent below, as well as being cited in at least twelve law review articles. [6] On this general issue, Professor Dore wrote that [t]he purposes of the declaratory statement procedure are `to enable members of the public to definitively resolve ambiguities of law arising in the conduct of their daily affairs or in the planning of their future affairs' and `to enable the public to secure definitive binding advice as to the applicability of agency-enforced law to a particular set of facts.' Dore, supra note 4, at 1052 (footnotes omitted). Professor Dore analogized the procedure to a declaratory judgment action, except that the administrative substitute [was intended to] be more widely available than the judicial remedy and that its use not be unduly restricted by artificial access barriers that would frustrate its primary purposes. Id. at 1053. She elaborated that: The procedure was developed to meet the perceived inadequacies of declaratory judgment actions. It was developed to provide a less costly, less lengthy, less complicated, and less technical nonjudicial mechanism for members of the public to secure binding advice where it is necessary or helpful for them to conduct their affairs in accordance with law. For this executive branch alternative to work properly, great care must be exercised by both agencies and courts to understand it for what it is and not to treat it as a masquerading declaratory judgment action. Id. Professor Dore also cautioned that it is not proper for a reviewing court to reverse an agency's statement on nonsubstantive, technical grounds [because] [t]he technical niceties that constrain courts do not apply to executive agencies. Id. at 1062.