Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
FSLA Leader Sees Soft Market Opportunities in State Farm Exit, Med Mal, EPLI
Feb 22 2009 // The Florida surplus lines industry may be challenged right now by regulatory uncertainty stemming from the Essex and CNL Hotels rulings but it is not letting that blind it to opportunities. One opportunity is the pending...
Northern Capital Looking to Write State Farm Florida Insureds
Feb 20 2009 // Northern Capital Insurance Group, a Florida-based homeowners, commercial and auto insurance provider, said it is prepared to insure 50,000 State Farm Florida customers as that insurer withdraws from the state’s...
Judges: Jury Should Hear Florida Carbon Monoxide Suit
Feb 19 2009 // A federal judge was wrong to dismiss a lawsuit that blamed an auto muffler maker for the carbon monoxide poisoning of a 19-year-old Florida woman and her boyfriend, rather than let a jury decide, an appeals panel ruled...
Florida Jury Awards $8 Million in Tobacco Lawsuit
Feb 19 2009 // A Florida jury awarded $8 million Wednesday to the widow of a smoker whose death was caused by his addiction to cigarettes, in a major potential legal setback for tobacco company Philip Morris. The jury in Fort Lauderdale,...
Former ‘Winston’ Pitchman’s Among 8,000 Tobacco Trials in Florida
Feb 18 2009 // A former cigarette pitchman’s lawsuit against tobacco companies is among thousands awaiting trial in Florida. Alan Landers posed with Winston cigarettes on billboards and in magazines in the 1960s and 1970s. Now 68...
Florida’s Peninsula Insurance Ready to Write State Farm Policies
Feb 18 2009 // Florida Peninsula Insurance Co., a Boca Raton-based domestic insurer writing homeowners, condo and renters policies statewide, said it is prepared to insure up to 100,000 State Farm Florida customers as that insurer...
5 Insurers Asked to Testify at Florida Hearing on Credit Scoring Today
Feb 18 2009 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation will hold a public hearing this morning in Tallahassee about the use of credit scoring, credit history and credit models by insurers in the underwriting and setting of rates. The...
Widow’s Trial Victory in Florida a Setback for Tobacco Industry
Feb 17 2009 // A Florida jury ruled last Thursday that a smoker’s death was caused by his addiction to cigarettes, a legal setback for cigarette giant Philip Morris in the first of potentially thousands of cases to go to trial. The...
Florida Rejects State Farm Withdrawal Plan; Requires Major Conditions on Citizens, Agents
Feb 13 2009 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has offered a withdrawal plan for State Farm Florida Insurance Co. and its parent company with major conditions that were not in the original plan submitted by the insurer. In...
Florida Approves 6.4% Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rate Hike
Feb 11 2009 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has approved a 6.4 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance rates. The increase applies to new and renewal business and will become effective April 1. The...
It Figures
Feb 8 2009 // 1 in 6 The approximate ratio of drivers across the U.S. expected to be driving uninsured by 2010, according to the Insurance Research Council. The group says the economic downturn is expected to trigger a sharp rise in the...
Families’ Lawsuit Blames Florida Hospital Mold for Kids’ Deaths
Feb 6 2009 // The families of three pediatric cancer patients sued a Florida hospital this week, claiming their children died after contracting fungal infections from renovations being performed at the facility. The lawsuit filed by...
Florida Home-Grown Insurer Says It’s Ready for 30,000 State Farm Policies
Feb 6 2009 // After State Farm announced it would be leaving behind 1.2 million property policyholders within the next two years, state officials expressed confidence that the private insurance market, including a number of relatively...
Florida Lawmakers Question State Farm on Why It’s Leaving
Feb 5 2009 // State Farm Florida has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the state in the last decade and risks insolvency if it continues writing property insurance here, company executives told a legislative committee this...
Two Florida Insurance Scam Artists Lose Mail Fraud Appeal
Feb 5 2009 // Two men sentenced to federal prison for cheating investors out of more than $100 million in an insurance scheme have failed to convince an appeals court that they were unfairly convicted of mail fraud. The 11th U.S....
State Farm Rejects Call to Let Florida Agents Represent Other Insurers
Feb 4 2009 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is urging State Farm Florida to “immediately” let its agents do business with other insurance companies for their more than one million policyholders now that State...
<em>AP</em> Analysis: Florida Insurance Bind Overshadows Louisiana
Feb 3 2009 // Louisiana homeowners stunned by their rising insurance rates should remember that it could be worse. They could live in Florida. State Farm announced recently that it will stop doing business in Florida, the first big firm...
Florida High Court Rules Police Can Be Sued Over Safety Checks
Feb 2 2009 // A sharply divided Florida Supreme Court says law enforcement agencies can be sued over “safety checks” that go bad. The justices ruled 4-3 in the case of an elderly woman who later died after Marion County...
Florida Subpoenas State Farm Policyholder Data for Withdrawal Plan
Jan 30 2009 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has issued a subpoena to State Farm Florida Insurance Co. requesting detailed information about the company’s Florida property insurance policyholders. The request comes...
Commissioner Reassures: Mississippi’s No Florida in Its Insurance Markets
Jan 28 2009 // Commissioner of Insurance Mike Chaney moved to quickly to reassure state leaders and policyholders that no big insurance companies are leaving Mississippi. Chaney issued a statement after the announcement by State Farm...
