Florida courtroom rush slows further; filings dip 6% in Q1
Florida homeowners further slowed their rush to take their insurers to court during the first quarter, the third consecutive quarter with a decline in court filings after an early 2023 peak in litigation announcements.
Floridians submitted 15,585 filings of their intent to sue insurers during Q1, down a minor 6% on the prior quarter and down 33% from the Q2 2023 peak, a dataset from Florida's Department of Financial Services showed.
That 6.0% quarterly decline represents a slowdown in the reduction in filings from the prior two quarters which had fallen by a more precipitous 12% and 19%, respectively.
But the headline nominal numbers have fallen back into a range last seen in 2022 before a mass wave of action hit the courts, just as the threat of tort reform was coming into shape in the Florida legislature. January 2023’s 45% monthly increase in the count, immediately following passage of key bills but ahead of implementation dates, ultimately rendered a Q1 2023 tally 74% above that from Q4 2022.
The legislation enacted in December 2022 eliminated Florida’s one-way attorney fee provisions on property insurance suits that protected plaintiffs from legal fees. Florida additionally eliminated all future assignment of benefits clauses as of January 1, 2023 for residential policies and in a roll-out beginning January 1 for commercial.
Critics of Florida's more liberal prior regime had argued that contractors armed with AOB agreements and backed by an army of lawyers had too much leverage. That left Florida with an overwhelming majority of the nation’s lawsuits, some 76% OIR had said, on a small 7% minority of the nation’s claims.
Floridians had previously been required by law to pre-announce an intent to submit litigation against an insurer. The state database includes filings dating back to mid-2021.
State insurance regulators have already begun to show faith. “There are emerging signals that the reforms signed into law are having a positive impact on Florida’s property insurance market,” authors of a report from the state's insurance regulatory office OIR had previously said of trends visible in 2023.
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