Wall Street Journal – Florida Justice Reform Institute

We put an end to the litigation abuse that drove rates ever higher. Now the market is stabilizing.
By Paul Renner – May 2, 2025 4:00 pm ET

A ‘For Sale’ sign outside a single-family home in Hollywood, Fla., Oct. 27, 2022. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Palm Coast, Fla.

Floridians have faced major increases in their homeowners and automobile insurance premiums in recent years. At the same time, Florida ranked as one of the worst states in the country for lawsuit abuse, with our courts flooded by frivolous claims. This was no coincidence. Our Wild West litigation rules were a major reason that Floridians’ premiums were among the most expensive in the country and—for those already struggling with inflation—simply unaffordable.

To illustrate the connection between litigation abuse and affordability, in 2019 about 8% of all homeowners’ claims filed in the U.S. were filed in Florida. But according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Florida accounted for 76% of all claims that turned into lawsuits that year. Politicians overuse the word “crisis,” but this was a real one. Many predicted the collapse of our property-insurance market. Meanwhile, every time a billboard attorney won another jackpot, we all paid higher premiums.

When I was speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, the Legislature acted to end frivolous lawsuits and abusive tactics by lawyers while protecting people with legitimate legal claims. We also enhanced regulatory authority and raised penalties imposed on any insurer that failed to pay customers’ claims properly and promptly. These two major reforms ignored the special-interest fights among attorneys and insurance companies and put the focus where it belongs: on making litigation and insurance rules fair and premiums more affordable for all consumers.

The benefits of those reforms are now kicking in. Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation announced in February that nearly two-thirds of automobile premiums are declining between 6% and 10.5% this year, depending on the insurer, with more decreases expected as filings continue. If we stay the course, we should see even more-affordable rates in the years ahead.

Floridians are also seeing improvements with homeowners insurance. While 2024 rates continued to increase by double digits nationally, according to S&P Global, Florida premiums only increased 1% on average. This was the lowest rate of increase in the nation and well below the rate of inflation. Forty-three companies, representing 79% of policies on the market, filed either a decrease in 2024 or didn’t file increases. Our reforms ended the billboard-lawyer gravy train and eliminated the big increases in homeowners premiums we faced before those reforms became effective. Together with funding for home-hardening programs like My Safe Florida Home, the Sunshine State’s property insurance market will continue to stabilize and become more affordable in the years ahead.

Florida is known for its best-in-the-country freedom agenda, robust economy, and No. 1 ranking in education. Yet litigation abuse was one area in which our state ranked at the very bottom. Critics claim reform enriches insurance companies, but Florida’s recent rate reductions and market stabilization prove these arguments are baseless. While premiums remain too high and require continued attention, there is no question that ending litigation abuse has made a positive difference.

Recently, some in the Florida Legislature—at the behest of trial lawyers—have sought to undo these reforms. Gov. Ron DeSantis has led the fight to push back and has vowed to veto any efforts to undo our success.

Other states are following Florida’s lead. In March, Georgia passed landmark lawsuit-abuse reforms that will protect consumers, reduce costs and lower the hidden “litigation tax.” Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that will stop lawyers from padding jury awards with inflated and unreasonable charges. Louisiana, Oklahoma and even California are considering legislation this year to reform their broken legal systems. My advice is simple: Make litigation and insurance rules fair, and watch as premiums come down.

Mr. Renner, a Republican, served as speaker of the Florida House, 2022-24.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/why-trial-lawyers-hate-floridas-insurance-market-reforms-litigation-abuse-homeowners-automobile-b4a6f71e

Florida’s Trial Bar Hurricane

Legal abuse threatens insurers that absorb extreme weather risk.

March 14, 2017 6:57 p.m. ET

Governor Rick Scott has done heroic work to shore up the finances of Florida’s catastrophic insurer before the next big hurricane makes landfall. But storm or no storm, taxpayers will still get whacked with Category 5 bills if Tallahassee doesn’t shut down the state’s latest plaintiffs attorney get-rich-quick scheme.

Sunshine State lawyers, in cahoots with local contractors, are crisscrossing the state encouraging homeowners to sign away their insurance rights, a practice known as “assignment of benefits,” or AOB. In exchange, the lawyers promise to handle property repairs and fight with the insurance company for settlement paydays.

What the lawyers aren’t telling homeowners is what happens next. A 1950s-era Florida statute dictates that insurers are liable for all attorneys fees if they lose in court or settle for an amount more than the insurer’s initial offer. So the trial bar is filing inflated claims to coerce pre-emptive settlements from insurers that want to avoid even more expensive, protracted legal battles.

State courts have turned a blind eye to this abuse, and insurance costs are predictably soaring. Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida’s state-owned insurer of last resort, has seen litigated claims jump to 45% of all claims in 2016, up from 12% in 2011. The average paid loss on all non-wind water claims clocked in at $19,966 last year, up from $10,301 in 2011—and that number is expected to climb this year as more AOB lawsuits are filed.

Private insurers are seeing similar trends and are passing the costs along to policyholders. Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation says insurers may need to raise rates 10% or more annually “just to break even.” In Miami-Dade County, an owner of a $150,000 home pays, on average, a $2,678 annual premium for Citizens’ multi-peril insurance, more than twice the national average, and that’s rising to $2,926 soon. Citizens isn’t allowed to raise rates more than 10% a year, but private insurers can.

How long can homeowners bear double-digit premium hikes? Florida’s insurance commission is worried that consumers will eventually drop private insurance, or private insurers will close up shop—or both, especially in Southeast Florida, where AOB abuse is concentrated. Citizens would then be forced by law to step in and offer a below-market rate policy. Taxpayers would absorb the losses.

This man-made fiscal hurricane is swirling even as Citizens has offloaded more than a million policies to private insurers and shrunk its market share over the past few years. In 2011 the insurer estimated it would have to levy a $11.6 billion tax on Florida policy holders to cover claims from a catastrophic hurricane. Today, Citizens is running a surplus and could absorb the cost itself thanks to recent weather luck and Gov. Scott’s reforms.

That sunny scenario won’t last if AOB abuse continues. Florida’s legislative session started last week, and a bill introduced by Republican Senator Dorothy Hukill proposes common-sense reforms. But legislative fixes have been thwarted in recent years by the state’s powerful plaintiffs-lawyer lobby, and competing bills would bless the trial bar’s practices. Florida homeowners already face risks from hurricanes, hail storms and other natural phenomena. Do they need to face the unnatural disaster known as plaintiffs attorneys too?

Appeared in the March 15, 2017, print edition.

Why Trial Lawyers Hate Florida’s Insurance-Market Reforms

Florida’s Trial Bar Hurricane

Florida’s Trial Bar Hurricane

Florida Justice Reform Institute

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