FLORIDA RECORD

Rep. Randall Maggard filed the bill on nursing home litigation on Tuesday. | Florida House of Representatives

New Florida bill would limit lawsuits against senior-living providers

By Michael Carroll
Feb 24, 2023

New constraints would be placed on litigation filed against senior living facilities, including a ban  on expert witnesses testifying on a contingency fee basis, under provisions of a bill introduced this week in the Florida Legislature.

Rep. Randall Maggard (R-Dade City) introduced House Bill 1029 on Tuesday. The bill would place new rules on admitting evidence when senior residents make claims of rights violations, according to the bill’s text. Tort reform backers see such provisions as sensible to reduce excessive litigation that can drive up senior living costs.

The bill would prohibit adult children of residents of senior living facilities from receiving non-economic damages from litigation. The bill would update code regarding nursing homes and adult living facilities to create parity with existing medical malpractice protections. Similar laws regarding hospital litigation in Florida was changed about 10 years ago.

 Large | Courtesy photo

“Current long-term care liability law incentivizes plaintiffs to file lawsuits against any and every possible defendant, especially those with deep pockets, and encourages the dubious use of experts outside their scope of practice,” William Large, president of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, told the Florida Record. “HB 1029 addresses these issues by injecting specificity and strict requirements into the evidence and expert witness processes.”

Civil litigation against long-term care facilities and other businesses has become an area of increasing concern for Florida lawmakers, since over the decade beginning in 2010 the number of jury verdicts of $10 million or more has increased by 27.5 percent, according to research by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.

In addition, Florida has more nuclear verdicts per capita than any other state (1.059 verdicts per 100,000 residents), the ILR study states. Noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering typically make up a large proportion of such verdicts, according to the analysis.

A Senior Living study found that not having enough money saved for retirement was among the top fears of about half of all seniors. Legislation that mitigates excessive litigation against long-term care facilities could ultimately moderate the costs to reside in such facilities, according to some observers. 

Nearly 21 percent of nuclear verdicts between 2010 and 2019 involved medical liability cases, according to the ILR.

The Florida Record is owned by the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform.

https://flarecord.com/stories/639874322-new-florida-bill-would-limit-lawsuits-against-senior-living-providers 

FLORIDA RECORD

Friday, January 13, 2023

Florida Justice Reform Institute President William Large called the state Supreme Court ruling a victory for textualism. | Florida Justice Reform Institute

By Michael Carroll – Jan 10, 2023

The Florida Supreme Court has struck down a $16 million punitive damages award in a wrongful death case, concluding that the award was out of sync with the jury’s compensatory damages award of just $150,000.

In a Jan. 5 ruling in the case of Brinda Coates vs. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the high court said trial courts abuse their discretion when they reject a party’s request to reduce punitive damages awards which appear unreasonable when compared with compensatory damages and the plaintiff’s injury.

In turn, the state Supreme Court affirmed a state appeals court’s ruling in the case, in which R.J. Reynolds was accused of being partly liable for the death of Coates’ sister, Lois Stucky, as a result of Stucky’s use of the company’s tobacco products.

“We approve the Fifth District’s decision reversing the punitive damages award and remanding for further proceedings to the extent the district court’s decision is consistent with this opinion,” the Supreme Court’s opinion states.

The Florida Justice Reform Institute (FJRI) and American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) view the high court’s decision as a victory for the rule of law.

“As the court noted in its opinion, ‘judicial discretion must be constrained by statutory criteria in determining whether an award is excessive,’ ” William Large, FJRI’s president, said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “This is a huge win for textualism and the notion that the judiciary’s role is to say what the law is and not what it should be.”

The FJRI, ATRA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce previously filed an amicus brief in the case. The brief argues that a 1997 state law makes a punitive damages award greater than three times the compensatory damages award “presumptively invalid.” In the Coates case, the ratio of the two awards was 106.7 to 1.

The high court did acknowledge the possibility that a trial judge could make a finding that a punitive damages award reasonably exceeds the 3:1 ratio based on the facts and circumstances of a case. But such a finding has to show a reasonable relationship between “the amount of damages proved and the injury suffered,” the justices said.

The Record is owned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.

https://flarecord.com/stories/638662238-florida-s-high-court-rejects-excessive-16-million-damages-award-in-wrongful-death-case 

FLORIDA RECORD

Florida Justice Reform Institute President William Large says auto glass litigation has led to inflated claims. | Florida Justice Reform Institute

By Michael Carroll
Nov 28, 2022

Insurance and tort reform groups have launched a campaign to warn consumers about the explosive growth in auto glass litigation in Florida  – a phenomenon that some observers say contributes to rising claims costs and insurance policy rates.

The campaign, called “Fix the Cracks,” was launched by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), Florida Justice Reform Institute and Personal Insurance Federation of Florida (PIFF).

The initiative aims to warn drivers of increasingly aggressive attempts by vendors to get drivers to sign over their car insurance benefits in return for windshield repairs and other incentives, such as gift cards. Vendors working with attorneys can then file inflated claims with the car insurer and take advantage of the state’s one-way attorney fee laws – a process that drives up the cost of insurance, those involved in “Fix the Cracks” say.

The campaign’s goal is to protect consumers from predatory auto glass claims, ensure vehicle passenger safety and advocate for legislative changes.

“It is a crime to file a fraudulent insurance claim in Florida, such as auto glass repairs or windshield replacements where no damage existed,” Eric De Campos, the NICB’s government affairs director, said in a prepared statement. “This is occurring often in Florida as consumers are being solicited and offered incentives to file false or fraudulently inflated auto glass insurance claims.”

Campaign supporters say the practice of assignment of benefits (AOB), whereby policyholders sign over their insurance rights to a vendor, is to blame for much of the current crisis.

“The Florida Legislature passed AOB property insurance reform in 2019, but auto glass claims abuse was left out,” Michael Carlson, president and CEO of PIFF, said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “The AOB auto glass loophole, supported by the one-way attorney fee law, is the latest machine for some to profit at the expense of auto insurance consumers.”

During the decade ending in 2021, the number of auto glass lawsuits in Florida jumped by more than 4,000%, from 591 in 2011 to 28,156 in 2021, according to a database maintained by the state Department of Financial Services.

An NICB analysis found that Florida and Arizona had the highest number of questionable auto glass claims among the 50 states in 2020, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the total number of questionable auto glass claims in the nation. Florida topped the ranking with 497,251 claims, with Arizona following with 394,163 such claims.

Research carried out by the Florida Justice Reform Institute indicates that only a handful of law firms are behind the auto-glass AOB litigation in Florida, with filings occurring in a small number of counties where these law firms operate.

“Vendors use these assignments to seize the policyholder’s special one-way attorney fee right under statute and file expensive lawsuits based on inflated claims,” William Large, the institute’s president, said in a statement. “Many of these lawsuits happen without the policyholder’s knowledge or informed consent.”

https://flarecord.com/stories/635471190-fix-the-cracks-campaign-warns-floridians-about-abusive-auto-glass-lawsuits 

 

FLORIDA RECORD

By Michael Carroll

William Large, president of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, supported the passage of SB 7014. | Florida Justice Reform Institute

DeSantis moves to extend COVID-19 legal liability shield for health care facilities

By Michael Carroll – Mar 2, 2022

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an extension of COVID-19 legal liability protections for health care providers such as nursing homes last week, gaining applause from business groups and supporters of tort reform alike.

The governor’s action means that the legal liability protections the state has provided to nursing homes, physicians and acute-care facilities will be extended to June 1 of next year. Lawmakers in 2021 approved protections that were set to expire at the end of this month, but the supporters of Senate Bill 7014 say health care workers will remain vulnerable to coronavirus-related lawsuits.

“Governor DeSantis is to be commended for his decisive leadership,” William Large, president of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, told the Florida Record in an email. “He sought out to protect our heroic health care providers from unwarranted COVID 19 exposure lawsuits. Through sheer will, he was able to get this legislation passed and to his desk for signature.”

The legislation passed the state House of Representatives last month in a 87-31 vote, with many Democrats registering their disapproval. It will continue to help shield health care facilities from civil litigation relating to COVID-19 by raising the pleading requirements for such legal actions. Plaintiffs who file lawsuits over issues relating to coronavirus treatments and care must show the facility or health care professional engaged in gross negligence or purposeful misconduct to win in court, according to an analysis of the bill by the state legislative staff.

Moreover, defendants in such civil litigation can prevail if they show that they were simply following the recommendations of government agencies in treating patients.

The state’s National Federation of Independent Business executive director, Bill Herrle, said Florida health care workers deserve the extended protections provided by SB 7014.

“We can’t afford to have predatory trial attorneys try to exploit the pandemic for financial gain,” Herrle said in a prepared statement. “Doctors, nurses, hospitals and clinics can’t be distracted from their goal of keeping people well so they can work and go about their daily routines.”

https://flarecord.com/stories/621197735-desantis-moves-to-extend-covid-19-legal-liability-shield-for-health-care-facilities 

 

FLORIDA RECORD
Appointment of Francis, Couriel expands Florida high court’s diversity
By Michael Carroll | May 27, 2020

Judge Renatha Francis will take her seat on the Florida Supreme Court in September.

MIAMI – Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded cultural diversity on the Florida Supreme Court and highlighted the concept of judicial restraint Monday when he named Caribbean-American Renatha Francis and Cuban-American John Couriel to fill two judicial vacancies.

At a press conference, both Francis and Couriel signaled they share the governor’s view that judges should play a limited role within the state’s constitutional system of government. Judges should apply laws as they are written by the people’s duly elected representatives, Francis said in her remarks.

DeSantis selected Francis, a Palm Beach circuit judge, and Couriel, an attorney with Kobre & Kim LLP, from a list of nine finalists assembled by the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission. The process to fill the two seats vacated by the elevation of justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals got under way in December, but the selection was delayed two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Judge Francis will be the first Caribbean-American to sit on the Florida Supreme Court, and she may be the first Caribbean-American to sit on any state supreme court,” DeSantis said.

 John Couriel

The governor also honored the values of the state’s Cuban-American community during his comments about Couriel, a Harvard Law School graduate and an adjunct professor at Florida International University. Couriel is the son of a Cuban exile who escaped from Cuba when it was led by Fidel Castro.

“They understand the importance of having a society based on rule of law rather than on the whim of an individual dictator,” DeSantis said.

Francis, who will take office in September once she completes the required 10 years as a member of the Florida Bar, described her mom as a Jamaican small farmer who imparted grit, determination and hard work.

“I am truly the epitome of the American dream,” she said.

Couriel, who had the backing of former Gov. Jeb Bush, will bring extensive business experience to the high court.

“My prayer today is that your judgment will have been good,” Couriel told DeSantis during the press conference, “and that my judgment will not let you down.”

Reaction to the governor’s announcement was positive among a number of observers, including the Florida Justice Reform Institute, which fights against wasteful civil litigation in the state.

The institute “applauds Gov. DeSantis for his thoughtful and decisive leadership as he continues to reshape the Florida Supreme Court,” William Large, the institute’s president, said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “The governor’s appointments of John Couriel and Renatha Francis as the 90th and 91st justices continue his mission to restore the court to its proper role as the interpreter of our laws, not the author.”

The Florida Chamber of Commerce also praised the appointments of Couriel and Francis.

“Today’s appointments are certainly welcome news as they continue Gov. DeSantis’ track record of selecting highly qualified legal minds that have proven capable of resisting the urge to legislate from the bench and limit their role to the interpretation of duly passed laws,” David Hart, the chamber’s executive vice president, said in an email.

https://flarecord.com/stories/537950478-appointment-of-francis-couriel-expands-florida-high-court-s-diversity