Stacked with lawyers from both parties, the Legislature's judiciary committees are again expected to address a host of perennially controversial topics such as civil litigation, foreclosures and malpractice that often pit businesses against trial attorneys.

This session, the men directing traffic in both chambers are not members of the legal profession. Instead, Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, and Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, hail from a business community that has long complained that the legal system is tilted against it.

WASHINGTON -- At the end of this year in which election results reinserted immigration into the political conversation, remember that 2012 is the 150th anniversary of "the first comprehensive immigration law."