(Wine-Searcher) - A Florida legal declaration seeks to open the state up to the auction and retail market.

Midwestern attorney Robert Epstein is on a mission to open up as many states as possible to interstate shipping.

"We have pending cases in Missouri, Illinois and Michigan, which is now on appeal," one of the Indianapolis-based founders of Epstein, Cohen, Seif & Flora shares. He has next set his sights on Florida, where he has requested a declaratory statement from the state's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (ABT), requesting that the state permit out-of-state retailers to ship wine into Florida.

Jim Arnold, the owner of Kahn's Fine Wine & Spirits in Indianapolis, is the plaintiff for the case and there is no defendant or lawsuit in this case. In response to Epstein's declaration in Florida a foursome of wholesale and retail organizations in the state have filed an appeal against Epstein in order to have the ABT further examine the case.