CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES, INC., APPELLANT,

v.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS AND CURTIS KRUER, APPELLEES

Citator

Cited By

• State v. Fla. Bankers Ass'n, 764 So. 2d 660 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000)
  …f fees to a prevailing party. .... We hold, that in order to be substantially justified, an agency must, at the very least, have a working knowledge of the applicable statutes under which it is proceeding. Helmy v. Department of Bus. & Prof. Reg., 707 So. 2d 366, 368, 370 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998) (citations omitted) (emphasis added) (reversing the order of an administrative agency denying fees and holding that, where nothing in the proceedings before the agency suggested that members of the agency even had an aw…
• Agency FOR Health Care Admin. v. MVP Health, Inc., 74 So. 3d 1141 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011)
  …(emphasis added). Section 57.111(4)(a) states that a state agency may avoid fees if its action was “substantially justified.” It is the burden of the state agency to show that this exception applies. See Helmy v. Dep’t of Bus. & Prof'l Regulation, 707 So. 2d 366, 368 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998). Here, AHCA claims two facts “substantially justified” its decision to issue the Notice of Withdrawal: (1) the ongoing litigation over MVP’s ownership; and (2) its concern over MVP’s accreditation. We agree. An action is “s…