NFIB Podcast Looks at Florida’s Success in Stopping Lawsuit Abuse

July 13, 2023 Last Edit: June 5, 2025

'We went from being a Judicial Hellhole to a glimmer of hope …'

NFIB Podcast Looks at Florida's Success in Stopping Lawsuit Abuse

NFIB State Executive Director Bill Herrle and Winter Springs small business owner and NFIB member Michelle Smith are guests on the latest episode of the Small Business Rundown, NFIB’s biweekly podcast. On this week’s episode, Herrle, Smith, and NFIB Vice President of Government Relations Tim Goodrich discuss the topic of lawsuit abuse and its impact on small businesses. Herrle also discusses the progress made in Florida with the passage of landmark lawsuit abuse reform, highlighting the instrumental role played by NFIB members like Smith. Read excerpts of the conversation below and listen to the full episode here: Bill Herrle: “We went from being a Judicial Hellhole to a glimmer of hope as defined by the American Tort Reform Association … we did it with members like Michelle, who’s with us today, and a lot of other members stepping up to the plate. We had members travel to Tallahassee to testify before legislative committees. We had members tape testimonial videos to the Florida House of Representatives that were seen by every representative. And we had literally thousands of members engaged in record numbers that we haven’t seen in a long time on the issue responding to NFIB alerts that we were very judicious about sending it out … right before those critical committee votes and House floor votes are happening.” Michelle Smith: “The other thing that for me as a business owner that NFIB did for me was it gave me direct access to the legislators. So, in addition to being very skillful in putting those meetings with committees and conversations together, for me, personally, the biggest advantage that I got out of that was having direct conversations with not only legislators but with the governor where we were able to say, look, you know, business owners, we’re looking for tort reform, and we’re looking for your help on that.” Tim Goodrich: “The Perryman Group in 2021 put a study together and basically said that the cost of the tort system in the US is $285 billion … and that comes out to a tort tax of about $1,300 per person, per taxpayer. So, we’re talking about real dollars here. This isn’t just a nuisance that we’re talking about. These are real dollars. And as far as Florida, it definitely was the bright spot this year and, hopefully, we’ll have another bright spot before the year is over.” Listen to Episode 13 in its entirety at https://www.nfib.com/smallbusinessrundownpodcast/. NFIB’s Advocacy Center has numerous resources for how small business owners can get involved and share their stories at every level of government. To learn more about the Florida Lawsuit Abuse victory, go to NFIB.com/StopFloridaLawsuitAbuse. Listen to NFIB’s national podcast, the Small Business Rundown, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Small Business Rundown, industry experts, small business owners, legislators, and more join host Senior Vice President of Advocacy Adam Temple to analyze how current events, local politics, and national legislative efforts impact Main Street businesses throughout the country. For more information, visit NFIB.com/SmallBusinessRundownPodcast.

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Florida

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