Governor signs major legal reforms into law

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a major piece of legislation March 24 designed to curtail lawsuits and the fees lawyers can collect. 

But while Republicans celebrated the legislation, critics say it strengthens insurance companies at the expense of consumers who may have been wronged.

“Florida has been considered a judicial hellhole for far too long and we are desperately in need of legal reform that brings us more in line with the rest of the country,” DeSantis says in a statement on the bill signing.

The bill, HB 837, is meant to “tackle lawsuit abuse” by, among other measures, creating “reasonable” attorney fees for most civil suits, reducing the statute of limitations for negligence actions and providing “standards for evidence” to calculate damages for medical expenses. It also reduces the statute of limitations for general negligence cases from four years to two years.

The legislation was filed by House Judiciary Chair Tommy Gregory, R-Lakewood Ranch, and Tom Fabricio, R-Miami Lakes. The House passed the bill 80 to 31  March 17, and the Senate passed it 23-15 March 23. DeSantis signed it the following day.

The governor, who has pushed for tort reform, says in the statement that the legislation was needed to modify the “bad faith” framework, eliminate one-way attorney’s fees and fee multipliers.

But many in the legal industry, and elsewhere, warned against the bill with many personal injury attorneys taking to their websites to warn clients of what they see is at stake. They argue the person who will take the biggest hit is consumers who have lost the ability to fight for protection and compensation.

Shortly after the bill passed the senate, the president of the Florida Justice Association, Curry Pajcic, blasted lawmakers, saying, in a statement from the group, that the bill “weakens accountability for insurance companies and multibillion-dollar corporations by creating roadblocks to the ability of average Floridians to be able to access the courts.”

“In just three short weeks, Florida lawmakers rushed through some of the largest rights-grabbing legislation in recent history. This bill significantly limits the ability of Floridians to hold wrongdoers accountable and effectively gives ‘Big Insurance’ the keys to our state and our court process.”

He added that the bill “is a direct assault on the rights of every Floridian by insurance companies and corporate elites who think they can dictate which rights should be preserved and which can be tossed aside.”

State Sen. President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, disputes those assertions, saying citizens who are hurt in an accident or suffer a loss need to be “compensated quickly and fairly.”

“The vast majority of attorneys work very hard to provide sound legal representation for Floridians in these difficult circumstances,” she says in the statement. “Unfortunately, there are a few bad actors who are in the business to draw out civil cases as long as possible, collecting more and more fees from insurance companies.”