In a lawsuit against insurance companies, the Florida home adopted a bill Friday that added a proposal to the unrelated Senate bill to maintain its bid to restore the availability of so-called “one-way attorneys’ fees.”
But if the House wanted the revised bill to be slipped by the Senate, supporters of reforms that cut legal costs for insurance companies are urging senators to reject it when they return in the coming days.
“I hope the Senate does the right thing and grows into the room,” said Stacey Julianti, chief justice officer at Florida Peninsula Insurance, based in Boca Raton.
Efforts to restore the plaintiff’s right to claim attorneys’ fees for litigation against the insurance company have left only a small impact that has overshadowed dozens of other insurance-related claims introduced for the session, poised for enactment.
Until the late bids came into the scene, the Senate appeared to be content to ignore bills that require insurance companies to pay again for the fees incurred by the suing policyholder.
In advocating reform three years ago, the insurance company said the industry was unprofitable due to an avalanche of frivolous lawsuits filed under Florida law a century ago. The law required the insurance company to pay the legal fees if it agreed to settle the case by paying just $1 for the original settlement offer. However, if they sued the insurance company and lost, the insurance client was left harmless.
The reforms put Florida’s legal system on equal footing with most of the country, the insurance company said. The plaintiff is currently required to pay the lawyer from his pocket or part of what he wins.
However, the lawyer says that the plaintiff cannot challenge rejection, denial of small claims or low wages because the lawyer cannot make enough money to justify taking the case.
The lawyer says he knows that he is burning insurance companies to unfairly treat policyholders.
The bill, introduced before the current legislative session by state Rep. Hillary Cassell, a Broward County Democrat-turned-co-survivor who is also the plaintiff’s lawyer, was approved by two House committees but still awaited a hearing by the Third Committee. Typically, the bill would require three committee hearings to be passed in both the House and Senate.
However, the Senate could potentially respond to warnings from state insurance commissioner Governor Ron DeSantis, the insurance industry leader, and failed to schedule it for a single committee hearing.
The Senate also ignored the bill by former President Don Gaetz. This would also have given the judge the authority to award lawyer fees to plaintiffs who win the case.
On Wednesday, House Rep. Bernie Jack attached language to an unrelated bill approved by the Senate from the Cassel bill.
Rather than “one-way attorney fees,” supporters argue that the bill should actually be called a “winning party” or “loser pays” measure. If the court awards more than the amount provided by the insurance company, the insurance company will require that the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees be paid, but if it is less than the court proposed the insurance company, it will have to pay the insurance company fees.
In debate over the bill on Friday, Rep. Michael Gottlieb, who represents parts of Broward County, predicted that “we will block the lawsuit, prolong the lawsuit, and not get caught up in a second case, so we will be involved in the lawsuit you lose.”
Rep. Tyler Syroa, a native of Brevard County, said the bill would restore “balance.” He added, “It made it easier for insurance companies to delay, deny and pay claims. It made it difficult for honest Floridians to fight back, whether they’re carrying hammers or calculators.” ”
During the debate, the House members never opposed the amended bill and were adopted by a vote of 80-20.
As part of the round-trip that must occur to obtain a uniform bill approved by the whole of Congress, the amended bill will now return to the Senate, where it can vote for a version of the House, remove or change the amendment, or simply let it die.
Jacque’s filing of the amendments on Wednesday sparked a surge in activity by industry supporters who have been tracked since reforms were enacted, filed lawsuits and once again warned that they would undermine tracked progress after insurers forced them to increase premiums.
Insurance Secretary Michael Yaworsky also urged Governor DeSantis Peter Cudderman, director of legislative and intergovernmental issues, to send an email to the bill that could dismantle “hard progress” achieved through reforms from 2022 to 2023.
Yaworsky’s progress includes a reduction in insurance companies’ reinsurance costs, 65 fee returns with no reductions or increases, the introduction of 12 new insurance companies into the Florida market, and a 23% decrease in annual litigation applications.
The potential impact of the House bill, he warned, includes litigation, insurance companies’ costs, reinsurance premiums, private investments and an increase in the population of state-owned civil property insurance companies, the last resort insurance company.
After the vote, the Florida Florida Chamber of Commerce for Industrial issued a statement saying it would continue to fight to stop the bill.
“To retreat is a wrong move for Florida,” the statement said. “We need to allow these reforms to continue working. We don’t re-allow scammers to artificially drive medical costs to inflate verdicts and encourage lawsuits by pledging judicial fees to those on the sign.”
Brian Murphy, who owns the franchise of the Brightway Insurance Agency in Palm Beach Gardens, said he supports maintaining reforms after the hearing. If the positive trend continues, he said, “it is a sign that the state’s efforts to stimulate the insurance environment are working.”
Miami-based insurance agent Dulce Suarez-Resnick said supporters predicted that reforms would not be felt for three years.
“We’ve already seen a lot of impact two years later,” she said. “The council has to be patient, we need to spend another year.”
President William of the Florida Institute of Judicial Reform, said the House proposal would restore “one-way lawyers’ fees.”
“Unless the insurance company gets a zero verdict, they will ultimately pay attorneys’ fees,” he said.
He also said what is bothering is the provisions of the bill that allows plaintiffs to award attorneys’ fees if they win a “declarative judgment.” It “we intend to create incentives for lawyers to generate fees for litigating declarative judgment lawsuits,” the massacre said.
Only premiums passed through the House and Senate
After approval by both rooms, a few bills heading to the governor’s desk include:
– SB 114/HB 1097 – Transfer hurricane loss prediction modeling from Florida International University to Florida State University.
– SB 1076 / HB 715 – Expand the roof contractor’s work scope to include evaluation and strengthening of roof and wall connections. A cancellation window for contracts signed after an emergency.
– SB 176 / HB 1041 – If voters approve constitutional amendments in November 2026, they will limit the rise in property tax hikes on housing to prevent flood damage.
– SB 948 / HB 1015 – Requests the landlord to provide flood risk information to the tenant before signing the lease. If no disclosure is provided to the tenant after 30 days of the flood and the tenant is suffering from flood damage, give it to the tenant to terminate the lease.
A bill with little chance of enacting
Meanwhile, the long list of bills did not receive a committee hearing. It was less than the required number of committee stops, or was ignored by either Chamber of Commerce.
Giulianti doesn’t want to see any of the things that are instituted this year. “For Congress, it’s best to ensure that every (2022 and 2023) change works through the system throughout all insurance renewal cycles and decide whether or not something needs to be adjusted next year,” he said.
The remaining property premiums on the table would have allowed the policyholder.
– Responsible for the owner of the fallen tree to damage their property.
– Protects personal information entered into a uniform mitigation verification test form.
– See examples of county ratings in access rate transparency reports or submissions to the Department of Insurance and Regulation.
– Learn how premiums are distributed to subsidiaries, prisoner-of-war vendors, management companies and reinsurers.
– Requests the insurance company to pay certain fees for services offered by affiliates.
– If you have problems paying premiums, use the $500 million emergency trust fund.
– Holds a surplus line insurer who is responsible for paying all the insured value set in the policy.
– Requires insurance companies to participate in forced dispute resolution hearings prior to lawsuits.
– If they are citizen customers outside the FEMA flood zone, get out of the new requirements for holding flood insurance.
– Balance and consider advice from the Insurance Solutions Advisory Council or access the Homeowner Insurance Consumer Guide.
– Protects against cancellation while trying to repair damage from floods and hurricanes.
– We seek refunds for wind and flood damage mitigation projects through the My Safe Florida Home program.
Ron Burtibise covers South Florida Sun Sentinel’s business and consumer issues. He can be contacted by telephone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
Original issue: April 26, 2025 9:08am EDT
