Recent Changes To Florida Insurance Law And Its Effect On Litigation

It is no secret that Florida’s residential property insurance market has experienced a tumultuous past couple of years.

Within the past two years alone, a myriad of Florida’s residential property insurance carriers have stopped writing or renewing policies within the state, have cancelled existing policies, or have requested steep rate increases in order to deal with the soaring litigation costs related to roof and wind damage claims.

Further exacerbating matters, between 2021 and 2022, seven major Florida insurance carriers entered insolvency, liquidation, or required midterm cancellations.
While Florida accounted for only 8.2% of homeowner’s claims made nationwide in 2019, more than 76% of all homeowner’s lawsuits against insurance companies originated in Florida that same year.

Therefore, on April 26, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a Proclamation convening a Special Session of the Florida Legislature to address the residential property insurance crisis.

And on May 26, 2022, after passage by the Florida Legislature, Governor DeSantis signed into law SB-2, a bill that seeks to stabilize Florida’s property insurance market with pro-consumer measures and legal reforms to reduce frivolous litigation that drives up costs for insurance companies and policyholders.