Florida insurance and tort reforms (2022-2023)

In the early 2020s, Florida's homeowners insurance market was on the verge of collapse: several insurers failed, others withdrew, and the public insurer of last resort became the state's largest. The cause was not only climatic. Florida accounted for a heavily disproportionate share of US homeowners insurance litigation, fueled by two mechanisms. One-way attorney fees forced an insurer that lost, even partly, to pay the policyholder's lawyer, with no reciprocity. Assignment of benefits allowed repair firms, notably roofers, to take over the insured's rights against the insurer and sue directly, with inflated estimates. The special session of December 2022 abolished one-way fees in property insurance and banned assignment of benefits for new policies. HB 837, in March 2023, extended the abolition of one-way fees generally, introduced modified comparative negligence barring recovery for a claimant more than half at fault, and shortened the negligence limitation period. The effects show in returning capacity and new insurers. For the analyst, it is a rare case where legal system inflation was addressed by statute, and where the effect of a rule change on claims experience can be measured.