Insurers push to protect legal reforms as Florida legislative session nears close

By Mia MacGregor

April 11 - (The Insurer) - With three weeks remaining in Florida’s 2025 legislative session, insurers are closely watching proposals that could roll back legal system abuse reforms passed in recent years, reforms they say are already yielding benefits for the state’s insurance market.

The reforms, enacted over the past three years, have already reduced consumer costs and restored insurance capacity, according to Adam Shores, senior vice president of state government relations at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), making their protection the trade body’s “top priority this year.”

“There’s a number of bills in the Florida House that would seek to unravel those reforms that, quite frankly, have already proven their merit,” he said.

“And so our message is: why would we want to do anything to scale back or unravel any of that great work that is proving to be successful?”

Michael Carlson, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of Florida (PIFF), described this year’s session as “very defensive” for the insurance and business communities, particularly in response to several House-sponsored bills aimed at undoing portions of the 2022 and 2023 tort reform packages.

“There’s a lot of bad bills, frankly, that have been filed in the House and have moved through committees—several of which are now in their final committees of reference and could be heard next week in week seven of our nine-week session,” Carlson explained.

Among the most concerning efforts, Shores pointed to targeted measures that would weaken or repeal elements of the original reforms—such as reinstating one-way attorney fees, undoing changes to medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuits, and eliminating the state’s no-fault personal injury protection (PIP) auto insurance law.

“All these things would add more cost to the pocketbooks of Florida consumers,” Shores said.

“That’s what we’re trying to protect against—to hold true to the intent and the result of those reforms, which has been to put cost savings back into the Florida market, bring more insurance capacity into the Florida market, and attract companies and businesses here to meet that promise to consumers.”

PIFF is especially focused on fighting efforts to repeal the state’s no-fault auto system, Carlson said.

“We believe any move to repeal PIP should be approached with caution,” he said. “There isn’t adequate data on rate impacts on drivers depending on the type of insurance they buy. Without that, they shouldn’t be advancing such a monumental change.”

He explained that the original goal of PIP repeal has always been to lower rates, reduce fraud, and limit litigation—but the reality may be different.

“For millions of Florida drivers, PIP repeal and replacing it with a $25,000 minimum bodily injury requirement would increase rates by roughly 50% for those who purchase only the bare minimum coverage,” Carlson said.

“It would also increase lawsuits, as bodily injury claims would become litigable, whereas under no-fault, many low-dollar claims were not. And we’d be concerned about a rise in fraud related to uninsured motorist claims.”

Carlson also warned of a growing anti-insurance sentiment in the state, fueled in part by recent media narratives.

“The media narrative, unfortunately, is very adverse. This isn’t new, but the media has latched onto some questionable sources, such as reports around claims closed without payment after hurricanes Helene and Milton,” he said. “That’s generated some ill will, particularly in the House—especially among freshman members.”

He attributed part of the challenge to a lack of insurance literacy.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of House members who, like many Floridians, just don’t understand how the market or the regulatory system works,” Carlson said. “They’ve seen simplified media reports and come to the conclusion that the trial bar is right and that these companies are being mismanaged.”

Still, Carlson urged insurers not to panic. “The good news is, on the Senate side, there’s been very little to no interest in reversing tort reforms passed in 2022 and 2023—or in reshaping the regulatory landscape for property insurers, and to some degree, auto.”

However, he warned that the sheer existence and advancement of some of these proposals is cause for concern.

“The fact that these bills were filed — and that a few have advanced, even on the Senate side, though not on tort issues, but just on insurance regulatory issues, signals to the market and to carriers that Florida is now in play for potentially damaging legislation, and that’s concerning in and of itself,” he said.

“That said, I think the likelihood of the House passing a lot of these bills and the Senate taking them up and passing them on to the governor is low.”

Shores echoed a cautious optimism that the proposals will not get enacted. “But we’re keeping our foot on the gas in terms of continuing to raise that message about why we need to protect those reforms that were enacted.”