Recently, the American Tort Reform Association released its 2025-26 Judicial Hell Report. The report was a sobering reminder of how quickly states can descend into legal chaos if litigation abuses are allowed to flourish. For Florida, this report should serve as both a warning and a wake-up call.
After years of fighting hard to escape the clutches of a broken civil justice system, the Sunshine State is now facing new pressure from the trial lawyer lobby to change course.
As the 2026 Congress approaches, the question is no longer theoretical. Will Florida defend the reforms that have restored balance and affordability, or risk falling back into the very “judicial hell” it struggled to leave behind?
The trial lawyer lobby, drawing its power and courage from the state’s well-funded marquee lawyers, has greatly increased its control over the House leadership. Their agenda is unmistakable. The goal is to dismantle the tort reform successes of 2022 and 2023, revive the litigation factory that once plagued our nation’s courts, and restore the profit pipeline that depends on filing and incentivizing litigation at every turn.
Let’s be honest about how this industry works. Billboard lawyers are not successful when disputes are resolved quickly, fairly, or cheaply. Billboard attorneys thrive in cases where litigation is prolific, slow-moving, and expensive, regardless of the impact on consumers or taxpayers. Their model relies on a system that lends itself to fabricated claims, inflated damages, and procedural gamesmanship. In a perfect world for trial courts, courts would operate as profit centers rather than venues of justice. If the system is left unchecked, the result is increased costs for families, higher premiums for small businesses, and a legal climate that defers accountability.
If House leadership chooses to serve the trial lawyer lobby rather than the people of Florida, the consequences will be severe. Reinstating inflated medical damages, reinstating unilateral attorney fees laws, increasing liability for local governments, and reopening the floodgates of insurance litigation will raise premiums, reduce insurer participation in the market, burden small businesses, and clog courts with fabricated claims.
Thankfully, Governor DeSantis and the Florida Senate remain the last line of defense against this growing self-interest disguised as progressive policy. Their continued determination will determine whether our elected officials want to protect the public or succumb to the greedy demands of the litigation machine. Florida doesn’t have to learn the hard lessons it went through again. The nation’s recent advances should be protected, not explicated.
As the Legislature and Floridians look toward the 2026 session, they need to remember who will bear the real costs of these decisions and ensure that Florida courts serve the public interest, not the litigation industry.
Tom Gatens, Florida Citizens Against Litigation Abuse (FL-CALA) Executive Director
