By Adrian Middleton, Sword & Shield, PLLC · Updated Friday, October 9, 2026
Step 1: The investigation
Most stop-work orders begin with a Bureau of Compliance investigator visiting a job site. The visit may follow a referral (a competitor, a carrier, a county building department, an injured worker, a DBPR complaint), a planned sweep, or the investigator simply driving past active construction. The investigator identifies the workers, asks who they work for and how they are paid, and checks the Division's databases for a policy, an exemption or an employee-leasing arrangement in that company's name.
Section 440.107(3) gives the Department the power to enter and inspect any place of business at any reasonable time, examine and copy business records, administer oaths, issue subpoenas, and issue stop-work orders and penalty assessment orders. The investigator does not need a warrant to walk onto an open job site, and what the workers say in the first ten minutes is often the whole case.
From the investigator's side
Workers' statements are recorded on the investigator's field interview worksheets and become the Department's evidence of who was employed, for how long, and at what rate. Nothing an owner says afterward is treated as more reliable than what the crew said first.
Step 2: Service of the stop-work order
If the investigator determines that the employer has failed to secure the payment of compensation (or, later, has failed to produce records within 21 days of a written request), section 440.107(7)(a) deems that failure an immediate serious danger to public health, safety or welfare, and the Department must issue a stop-work order within 72 hours. The order is effective when served on the employer, or at a particular worksite when posted there.
The order requires the cessation of all business operations. Not just the job site where it was posted: once served on the employer, it applies to every worksite in Florida where the employer is not in compliance. The Department publishes stop-work order information on its website for at least five years.
The order is served with a notice of your rights under Chapter 120, Florida Statutes. You have 21 days from receipt to file a petition for an administrative hearing if you want to contest it. Miss that window and the order becomes final agency action.
Step 3: The Request for Production of Business Records
With the order, or within days of it, the investigator serves a Request for Production of Business Records for Penalty Assessment Calculation. It lists the categories of records the Department wants (identity, payroll, tax, bank, contracts, coverage, exemptions, subcontractors) for the penalty period: the preceding 12 months, or 24 months if the Department believes payroll was materially understated or the employer has a prior order.
Section 440.107(7)(a) now makes the deadline explicit: records must be produced within 21 days after receipt of the written request. Producing complete records within that window also earns a first-time employer the 25 percent reduction in section 440.107(7)(d)1.b. Producing nothing sends the Department to imputation. Read what the records request asks for before you decide.
The decision that drives everything
Whether to produce records, which records, and when, is the single most consequential decision in the case. It can change the penalty by a factor of ten, and it can hand the Department evidence of crimes that nobody asked you to volunteer. Decide it with counsel. See the do's and don'ts.
Step 4: Securing coverage
The order cannot be lifted until the employer has come into compliance with the coverage requirements of Chapter 440. In practice that means binding a Florida workers' compensation policy, joining a licensed employee leasing company (PEO) that covers the workers, or, for qualifying officers, obtaining certificates of election to be exempt. A first-time employer who binds a policy and pays the initial premium within 21 days of the records request gets that payment credited against the penalty under section 440.107(7)(d)1.a.
Step 5: The penalty calculation
The Department's auditor applies the formula in section 440.107(7)(d): two times the premium the employer would have paid, using the approved manual rates for the proper NCCI class codes, applied to the uninsured payroll for the penalty period, with a $1,000 minimum. If records were not produced, payroll is imputed at the statewide average weekly wage multiplied by 1.5 for every employee, officer, partner or sole proprietor, for every week of the period. The result is served as an Order of Penalty Assessment, or an Amended Order of Penalty Assessment if an earlier order was issued, with its own 21-day petition deadline. The arithmetic is explained on the penalty audit page.
Step 6: Conditional release and payment agreement
Once coverage is in place, the Department may issue an Order of Conditional Release from Stop-Work Order if the employer pays a $1,000 down payment and either pays the balance in full or enters a Payment Agreement Schedule for Periodic Payment of Penalty. Section 440.107(7)(a) requires the employer to pay in full or enter the agreement within 21 days after service of the first penalty assessment calculation; otherwise the stop-work order is reinstated and the whole balance becomes due. An employer with an unpaid penalty from a previous order cannot enter a new payment agreement.
Conditional release means you can go back to work. It does not mean the case is over, and it does not stop you from contesting the amount.
Step 7: Contesting
Section 440.107(13) makes every order contestable under Chapter 120. A petition for a formal hearing before the Division of Administrative Hearings puts the Department to its proof on who was an employee, for what period, under which class code, and at what payroll. Most penalties that are contested are reduced by stipulation before the hearing. See contesting a stop-work order.
Step 8: Release
When the penalty is paid, or the payment agreement is in place and current, and coverage is confirmed, the Department issues an Order Releasing Stop-Work Order. The lien created by section 440.107(11) on the employer's property is satisfied when the penalty is paid. Stay current: a missed installment reinstates the order.
Parallel tracks you cannot ignore
- Successor liability. Under section 440.107(7)(b), a stop-work order and penalty follow any successor business with one or more of the same principals in the same or equivalent trade. Closing the company and opening a new one does not work.
- DBPR referral. Section 440.107(14) requires the Department to immediately notify the Department of Business and Professional Regulation when a certified or registered contractor fails to secure coverage. See licensed contractors.
- Criminal referral. Knowingly failing to secure coverage is insurance fraud under section 440.105(4)(a)3, a felony graded by the monetary value involved. See criminal exposure.
- $1,000 a day. Operating in violation of the order costs $1,000 per day under section 440.107(7)(c), and knowingly violating the order is itself a felony under section 440.105(4)(b)8.
Served today? Get a former investigator on the phone before you talk to this one.
(850) 766-6825Free consultationQuestions
How long does a stop-work order last?+
Until the Department issues an order releasing it, which requires coverage in place and the penalty paid or under a payment agreement. With counsel, coverage and a payment agreement, a conditional release that lets you go back to work is often possible within days. Without them, the order lasts as long as the employer stays out of compliance, and the Department can seek an injunction in Leon County circuit court.
Can I keep working on other jobs?+
No. Once served on the employer, the order applies to every worksite in Florida where the employer is not in compliance, and each day of operation in violation is a $1,000 penalty plus a potential felony charge under section 440.105(4)(b)8.
What is the difference between the stop-work order and the penalty?+
The stop-work order stops operations. The Order of Penalty Assessment is a separate order, usually served later, that states the dollar amount owed. Each has its own 21-day deadline to petition for a hearing.