By Raymond Johnson
It is hard to believe, but just the other day, I had the opportunity to read a couple of reports that indicate that Florida’s automobile insurance and home insurance rates are beginning to fall. This has been a long time coming, and as we get ready to turn the page on this year and move into the new year, it is wonderful to see conservative leadership begin to really pay off.
Population growth continues to fuel an affordability crisis, andworking families have felt the pinch of rising property taxes, property insurance rates, and healthcare costs.
In 2023, our leaders were faced with a significant decision. Florida was on a national Judicial Hellhole list. It was too easy for an attorney to file a frivolous lawsuit against an insurance company and secure a big payout because state law requires insurers to pay for the legal expenses of those who sue them. So that all had to be dealt with because the millions upon millions of payments to lawyers were being paid for by all of us rate payers who are actually insurance customers.
The first reform they did is adjust the system to account for accidents that are self-causes. In other words, if the plaintiff himself is more than 50% at fault for his own accident, he has no basis to sue someone else. This doctrine stopped enterprising attorneys from settlement shopping, looking for the big payout from anyone who might have even a small percentage of liability for an issue.
Another key part of the reform package is moving the statute of limitation for a lawsuit from 4 years to 2 years. That definitely makes sense and has helped to reduce the amount of litigation and financing of litigation by small businesses for many years after an incident. It only logically follows that if someone has an accident, they should know within 2 years whether they are going to sue and not keep holding a small business hostage for a significant amount of time.
Now, Florida has been removed from the national judicial hellholes list, and insurance rates are going down which is absolutely the right direction for any working family struggling to deal with Florida’s affordability crisis.
The attorney lobby is putting pressure on the legislature to reverse these reforms. That would be a really bad idea, and I am confident that if they will stay the course, we will see costs even more fully reduced and Florida continue to lead the nation on yet another important policy issue.
Raymond Johnson
Jacksonville, FL
