Florida Stop-Work Orders: 22 Years of State Data

Key findings

• Orders are climbing again. Florida served 2,072 orders through November 5, 2026, up 10% from 1,883 in the same period of 2025.
• 2020 was the sharpest drop on record. Orders fell 82% in one year, from 2,385 to 435, and have not yet returned to the 2013 to 2019 level.
• Coverage is the main trigger. Failure to obtain coverage accounts for 93% of orders, and failure to produce business records for another 5.5%.
• Many orders end quickly, but not all. Of orders served through 2024, 39% ended within a week, 56% within 30 days, and 27% list no end date.
• About one order in six was reinstated. Among orders served from 2005 through 2023, 16.7% were reinstated, which the state does when an employer defaults on a penalty payment agreement.
• The Panhandle has the highest rates. Walton, Okaloosa and Bay counties lead per capita, at 28.6, 22.2 and 20.5 orders a year per 100,000 residents, against 8.0 statewide.
• Enforcement now reaches mostly LLCs. Employers with LLC in their name received 12% of orders in 2005 and 58% in 2025.

Orders by year

Annual orders peaked at 2,861 in 2013. They stayed above 2,300 every year from 2013 through 2019, then fell to 435 in 2020. The drop coincides with the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, though the state's records do not say why orders fell. They have recovered in most years since.

Lighter bars are partial years: 2004 starts November 11 and 2026 ends November 5.

Why orders are issued

Failure to obtain coverage is by far the most common reason, at 43,619 orders. Records orders follow a business records request that goes unanswered within the time allowed, and they total 2,556. A records order can reach an employer who actually has coverage, which is why the business records request deserves prompt attention.

How long orders last

The state lists an end date when an employer has come into compliance and has either paid the penalty or entered a periodic payment agreement. Among the 42,652 orders served through 2024, half had ended within 17 days. This group excludes newer orders, because they have had less time to end.

The speed has changed over time. Where an end date is listed, the median was 13 to 18 days for orders served from 2009 through 2013, and 2 to 4 days for orders served from 2015 through 2025. The records do not explain the change.

A missing end date does not mean the business was still shut down. The search does not show whether a business closed, restructured or stopped operating. Most reinstated orders also have no end date listed: of the 6,769 orders reinstated from the 2005 to 2023 group, only 990 show one.

Reinstated orders

A stop-work order can come back. The state reinstates an order when an employer defaults on its periodic payment agreement. Among the 40,635 orders served from 2005 through 2023, 6,769 were reinstated, or 16.7%. Getting an order lifted on a payment plan therefore does not end the risk. Read more on release options and the penalty calculation.

Counties with the highest rates

The largest counties have the most orders. The top five, led by Miami-Dade, Orange and Duval, hold 42% of all orders with a county listed. Population changes the picture. For 2023 through 2025, the statewide rate was 8.0 orders a year per 100,000 residents, and these counties ran highest:

Limited to counties with at least 25 orders in the period, since small counts swing widely. A per-resident rate measures enforcement activity against population, not how often employers break the rules, and investigators may work a county heavily during a construction boom or after a storm. See all 67 counties or download the full table below.

When orders are served

Counted per calendar day across 2005 through 2025, February is the busiest month and December the slowest, at 7.11 and 4.18 orders a day. Tuesday through Thursday account for 65% of orders. Weekends account for 1.1%.

Who receives them

The share of orders going to employers with LLC in their name has risen steadily, as the chart shows. This likely reflects how small businesses organize generally, not a targeting choice. Florida's construction rules for LLC members are their own trap, covered in the exemption guide.

The search has no industry field, so employer names give only a rough view of the trades involved. The share below counts names containing a trade word. These are minimums, because many names give no hint of the work.

Names can also show repetition. 2,296 employer names appear more than once, accounting for 10.3% of all orders. That is an estimate. Different businesses can share a name, and one business can change its name.

What employers should take from this

• Confirm coverage is in force before work starts, and that any exemption is current and matches the people on the job.
• Answer a business records request on time. Failure to produce records has led to 2,556 orders.
• If you enter a payment agreement, keep up with it. A default can bring the order back.
• If you receive an order, learn the process and talk to a lawyer before you speak to the investigator or hand over records.

Download the data

• Orders by year (CSV)
• Orders by county, with per-capita rates (CSV)

You may reuse these figures and charts with credit and a link to this page, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. The downloads contain no employer names.

Suggested citation: Sword & Shield, PLLC, "Florida Stop-Work Orders: 22 Years of State Data," StopWorkOrder.com (2026), https://stopworkorder.com/stop-work-orders/report. Analysis of Florida Division of Workers' Compensation stop-work order records.

Reporters and researchers can reach Adrian Middleton at (850) 766-6825 or through the contact page.

Method and limits

• Source. We pulled every record from the Division of Workers' Compensation Stop-Work Order search on November 6, 2026. Our count matched the total the search reported for every year.
• Date range. The analysis covers November 11, 2004 through November 5, 2026. The search also holds earlier 2004 records, which are left out.
• Geography. County totals exclude 1,676 orders on employers listed as out of state. The county is the employer's listed county, which may differ from where the job site was.
• Population. Rates use the U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 county population estimates (July 1, 2024). All three years use that one population figure.
• Definitions. End dates and reinstatements follow the state's own footnotes. 1 record whose end date came before its service date was left out of the timing figures.
• What the data cannot show. The search has no penalty amounts, industry codes or case outcomes. An order is an agency action, and its listing does not establish how any dispute was finally resolved. We do not name employers in this report.
• Accuracy. The figures reflect the state's records as of the pull date, and the state may correct them later. This report is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions