TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s governor and the insurance industry are sounding the alarm about legislation they claim could send your insurance rates through the roof.
The bill would reverse some of the reforms made in recent years that aimed to reduce litigation in the insurance space, and it’s now in the hands of the Senate after the House pulled a maneuver to keep the bill alive by tagging it onto an unrelated Senate bill and passing it out of the chamber.
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When Florida was in the peak of its property insurance crisis, the state accounted for 80 percent of property insurance lawsuits nationally, but only nine percent of total claims.
It was blamed on the state’s one-way attorney fee provision, which required insurers to pay claimants’ legal fees if they lost a dispute, but not the other way around.
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In response, lawmakers changed the law to require parties to cover their own legal fees, regardless of the outcome of a case.
Since then, lawsuits are down 23 percent, 12 new property insurance companies have joined the marketplace and 19 have approved rate reductions.
But House Speaker Daniel Perez (R-Miami) argued there’s more work to be done.
“We have not solved the problem for property insurance,” said Perez.
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While debating the House’s litigation reform bill, State Representative Tyler Sirois (R-Merritt Island) argued the reforms passed in recent years ended up entirely blocking access to the courts for many policyholders.
“We made it too easy for insurers to delay, deny and underpay claims,” said Sirois.
This year’s legislation would require losing parties in claims disputes to pay the winner’s legal fees.
“It is an open gateway to much more litigation than what we’ve seen in the past two years,” said Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute.
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Friedlander argued the proposal could send the property insurance market back into a tailspin.
“It will cause, potentially, the next risk crisis after we’ve finally worked towards a stabilized market,” said Friedlander.
Governor Ron DeSantis has also criticized the bill and suggested it’s being driven by trial lawyers.
“If you didn’t know anything else about that House, and you just saw what they were pushing, you know, you would think that they were all sponsored by Morgan and Morgan,” said DeSantis in a one-on-one interview with Action news Jax.
In a statement, John Morgan pushed back on DeSantis’ claim.
“I have no idea what he is talking about… His fellow Republicans are accusing him of crimes and Medicaid fraud. Did I have them do that?" wrote Morgan. “Come on Dawg.”
Related: EXCLUSIVE: Governor Ron DeSantis addresses rocky relationship with the Florida House
It’s still to be seen whether the Senate ultimately takes up the insurance bill, especially given similar legislation filed in the chamber was never heard in committee.
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