Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Workers’ Compensation Market Remains Competitive: Report
Jan 5 2011 // Florida’s workers’ compensation market remains competitive with more than 250 private insurers writing coverage and only a fraction of business being funneled to the residual market. Also, availability does not...
Florida Approves Lower Collateral for Renaissance Re
Jan 4 2011 // Bermuda-based Renaissance Reinsurance Ltd. has been approved to participate in Florida’s property reinsurance marketplace with modified collateral requirements. In 2007, Florida lawmakers passed legislation that...
Florida Limit on Public Adjuster Solicitation Ruled Unconstitutional
Dec 30 2010 // A Florida court has thrown out a rule banning public adjusters from soliciting customers within 48 hours of a disaster or other insurance claims event. The First District Court of Appeal ruled that the restriction on...
Immunity for Medicaid Providers Would Cost Taxpayers: Florida CFO Sink
Dec 30 2010 // Shielding Medicaid providers from lawsuits for negligent acts could cost Florida’s taxpayers an estimated $69 million per year in payments for private provider’s mistakes, according to a new report. Florida CFO...
11 Arrested in Florida on Staged Accident Charges
Dec 30 2010 // A year-long investigation targeting insurance fraud has resulted in 11 arrests and three pending arrests connected with four Florida chiropractic clinics. In January, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office Organized...
Florida Student Settles Over Facebook Suspension
Dec 30 2010 // A girl suspended from a Broward County charter school after she criticized a teacher on Facebook has settled a federal lawsuit against the school’s principal. Court documents show that Katherine Evans will receive...
Florida Citrus Zones Warming; Damage from Freeze Uncertain
Dec 29 2010 // Temperatures in Florida’s citrus growing zones were several degrees warmer Wednesday, the National Weather Service said, giving growers some respite after a freezing snap Tuesday that caused fruit damage. “It...
Rates Rising But Florida Home Insurers Report Still Losing Money
Dec 28 2010 // Many Florida homeowners expected relief from the higher property insurance bills that followed the busy 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. But more than 4 million homeowners are about to get hit by rate hikes and...
Another Freeze Hits Florida Citrus Growers
Dec 28 2010 // An overnight freeze hit several central Florida citrus growing areas, icing up fruit and raising fears of damage to the leaves and small twigs of trees, growers said Tuesday. It was the second significant hard freeze to...
Southeast’s Top Stories: Disasters That Happened and 1 That Didn’t
Dec 23 2010 // The top insurance stories in the Southeast in 2010 included several disasters that caused considerable death and destruction in the region and one that didn’t do as much harm as feared. The April 20 blowout of...
Florida Case Is Next Test for Health Care Law
Dec 20 2010 // Attorneys for 20 states fighting the new federal health care law told a judge last week it will expand the government’s powers in dangerous and unintended ways. The states want U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson to...
Fact or Fiction? Insurance Tidbits of Known and Little-Known Information
Dec 20 2010 // Have you ever wondered what big events helped shape regulation of the current U.S. insurance industry? Or if drivers of certain cars have more risk? What about the most attractive insurance job in the industry? These are...
Florida Citrus Growers Get Break After Bitter Cold
Dec 16 2010 // Florida’s citrus growers got a respite Thursday from the bitter cold that damaged oranges and groves in many areas Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Paul Close of the U.S. National Weather Service in Ruskin,...
Florida Growers Reporting Ice Damage to Orange Crop
Dec 15 2010 // Citrus growers in central Florida reported ice damage to their orange fruit and groves Wednesday after overnight temperatures dropped to bone-chilling lows in some areas of the citrus belt. “There was definitely some...
Northeast Florida Agents Group Inducts New Directors
Dec 15 2010 // The Independent Insurance Agents of Northeast Florida (IIANF) inducted its 2010-2011 board of directors recently. The IIANF board consists of Brad Arrowsmith with The Holmes Organisation; Michael Beach with The Della Porta...
Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Shaw Joins Merlin Law Firm
Dec 8 2010 // Sean Michael Shaw, who most recently served as Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate, has joined Merlin Law Group, an advocacy firm for property insurance policyholders. Shaw is joining the Tampa office. Shaw left...
New York Prosecutor Faces $75M Defamation Suit
Dec 8 2010 // An upstate New York prosecutor who charged a Florida pharmacy in 2007 with selling anabolic steroids to pro athletes and entertainers is being sued for $75 million by the pharmacists, who claim defamation and false arrest...
First Home Seeks 39% Rate Hike in Florida
Dec 7 2010 // Florida officials will hold a hearing today on a proposed statewide average home insurance rate hike of 39.3 rate increase for First Home Insurance Co., a Florida domiciled insurance company based in Maitland,...
Could Sinkhole Claims Sink Florida Insurers?
Dec 5 2010 // A new state report confirms sinkhole insurance claims are rising in Florida, costing insurers millions of dollars in payouts and expenses, cropping up in counties where they have not been a problem in the past, and showing...
Business Moves
Dec 5 2010 // USI, Kinloch New York-based insurance broker USI Holdings has acquired the New Jersey operation of Kinloch Holdings Inc. The unit, based in West Orange, New Jersey, specializes in commercial property casualty and employee...
