from Takeaways from Tallahassee
By Peter Schorsch
January 17, 2022
After Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed reforms to the auto insurance industry last year, advocates are making a big push to get mandatory bodily injury (MBI) coverage over the line this year. Among those advocates is the Florida Justice Association, again making no-fault repeal and MBI its top priority for Session.
Florida is one of only two states that doesn’t require MBI coverage. Additionally, Florida is a no-fault state and requires personal injury protection (PIP) coverage in auto policies.
FJA says those two points are significant contributors to why Florida has the third-highest auto insurance rates in the nation.
The Affordable Care Act has helped get more people health insurance than ever; PIP coverage has become redundant for 86% of Floridians, FJA argues.
Because MBI isn’t mandated, people often have to pay for their medical treatment after an accident from their health insurance or PIP policy. And because Florida is a no-fault state, it doesn’t matter if they or another driver caused the accident.
When you pull from your PIP policy, that means your premiums could go up, said FJA President Tiffany Faddis, who primarily practices auto negligence.
Ron DeSantis vetoed auto insurance reforms; Tiffany Faddis wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“It’s very frustrating as a practicing attorney, and very difficult how many conversations I have had with Floridians about there’s just nothing that I can do for them,” Faddis said. “There’s no coverage for them. There’s no compensation.”
In his veto letter, DeSantis said the bill didn’t adequately address Florida’s high rates and may have had unintended consequences. FJA Executive Director Paul Jess noted last year’s auto insurance bill tackled more than repealing Florida’s no-fault system, including addressing bad faith reform. Perhaps bundling issues did more harm than good, politically.
“We know that both the Senate President and the House Speaker would be interested in passing the bill again if a formula can be found to win the Governor’s acceptance,” Jess said.
Lawmakers are already angling to try again. As the Legislature reconvened this week, Sen. Danny Burgess and Rep. Erin Grall, the two Republicans who sponsored last year’s legislation, filed the legislation again (SB 150 & HB 1525).
No-fault repeal is not the only thing FJA is prioritizing. They’re also addressing construction defects and want to stop lawmakers from shortening the window homeowners have to sue homebuilders over construction defects.
Both the House and Senate have bills dealing with construction defect claims. While Republican Rep. Clay Yarborough’s House version (HB 583) doesn’t alter the number of years on construction defect claims, the version from Republican Sen. Travis Hutson (SB 736) makes a couple of changes. Among them is to create variable time limits for suing over latent, or hidden, defects. Instead of 10 years, the length of time could fall to five or seven years on some claims.
“That means that a lot of homeowners are going to end up developing and finding out for the first time about a construction defect with their home after five or six or seven years, and they will have no remedy,” Jess said. “They’ll just have to suck it up and pay for it out of their own pocket.”
Senate President Wilton Simpson told reporters the bill is not a priority of leadership but backed the general principles behind Hutson’s bill.
“I’m not 100% familiar with it, but I do believe there’s a lot of fraud that goes on the longer you are allowed as a building owner or homeowner to go back against the general contractor,” Simpson said.
Following the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside last year, expect to see critics like FJA argue Florida should be expanding the time frame for claims, not shortening it.
