On May 12, 2003, I took a leap of faith and left my job working for one of the nation's leading general contractors to join the legal profession. Eight days later, the Florida Legislature presented then-Gov. Jeb Bush with a revolutionary bill intended to reduce litigation associated with construction and design defects claims in Florida state courts. The bill was approved by the governor a few days later, became effective on May 27, 2003, and is now commonly known in the construction industry as Chapter 558.

The original 2003 version of Chapter 558, aptly categorized as a notice and opportunity-to-cure statute, contains a legislative finding and declaration preamble in the first section (558.001) that sensibly states an effective alternative dispute resolution, or ADR, process in certain construction defect matters should involve the claimant filing a notice of claim with the builders, suppliers or designers that the claimant asserts are responsible and should provide them with an opportunity to resolve the claim without resort to further legal process.

By way of example of the firestorm of controversy and competing interests that erupted almost immediately after the inception of Chapter 558, the modest single sentence premise included in the preamble of Section 558.001 was modified by the Florida legislative body in 2004, 2006 and 2015.