“We’ve never seen an insurance crisis fixed that doesn’t come down to tackling trial lawyers"
NFIB State Executive Director Bill Herrle today urged the Florida Legislature to pass House Bill 1D/Senate Bill 2D, legislation that would help eliminate bad faith litigation and rein in attorneys’ fees.
“By calling legislators back to Tallahassee, Governor DeSantis is leading the effort to enact real and necessary reforms in Florida homeowners insurance,” Herrle said.
“We’ve never seen an insurance crisis fixed that doesn’t come down to tackling trial lawyers,” Herrle said. In the past year, Florida cases represented 75 percent of all homeowners’ insurance lawsuits in the nation, he said.
“We’re urging the legislature to seize this opportunity to ease the financial pressure on homeowners and provide much-needed economic stability to the state,” Herrle said.
HB1D/SB2D would address the issue of runaway litigation by:
- Limiting one-way attorney fees awards for contractors, a provision intended only for consumers has led to lawsuit abuse in the insurance markets.
- Limiting attorneys’ fee multipliers, a provision that can double or triple the attorneys’ fee awards in insurance cases.
- Limiting “bad faith” lawsuits, which attorneys often abuse to get damage awards in excess of stated policy limits.
“NFIB has a long history of working to keep trial lawyers from abusing small business owners,” Herrle said. “We are stepping up on this issue on behalf of the small business owners and their employees whose steeply rising homeowners insurance rates are a threat to Florida’s economic vitality.”
