Jim Kalinger, Chairman of the Small Business and Consumer Alliance
For more than decades, Florida was listed in the annual “Judicial Hell” report created by the American Association for Tort Reform. But little by little, under the guidance of Governor Desantis, this began to change. At the spring 2023 legislative meeting, Florida Legislature finally put together a significant litigation reform package. And now our state is no longer a hell of justice.
But we are still on the watchlist and that’s not good. It is also unfortunate that the next step was taken at the 2024 legislative meeting to address the issues of third-party litigation financing and medical malpractice. If so, we may have been removed from our watchlist.
Third-party financing of litigation sounds like a good idea of argument that it doesn’t give anyone who is not capable of paying their costs during the recovery period of the lawsuit a chance to receive a loan to continue the lawsuit. The idea is that without funding, the injured party may be willing to take away a much smaller settlement just to get some cash.
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However, this potential benefit has been abused. Third-party investors often continue to litigate, even if the plaintiff wants to accept a settlement. Investors can and can take over decisions regarding the direction of the incident, ignoring the consideration of the painting. Investors can charge exorbitant interest rates to the point that even after victory, the plaintiff can receive little from the final settlement or award. What’s even more surprising is that financial third party funds were established and even established to receive funds from international investors, including foreign governments. Even the idea that international interests can use our court system to attack small businessmen and women in Florida should be sufficient to question this system. The proposed law would require disclosure to judges and ju apprentices regarding third party funding to the court. If ju apprentices would be far less generous with some of the frivolous claims of non-economic damages, knowing that money goes to corporate investors in place of the injured sitting in court. In some respects, the plaintiff would have already received his or her payments in the form of loans or advances from a third party. It doesn’t seem pointless to give third parties a bonus to create a loan.
Another effort at the last unsuccessful legislative meeting was to reform litigation related to medical malpractice. This year, Congress is considering legislation that will make it easier to sue doctors and other healthcare workers. This is not a good idea as it discourages doctors from practicing medicine in Florida.
This needs to be correct. Congress needs to reconsider this law and if they pass it, we may be able to beat the governor and reject it as he did with other bad laws in the past.
