Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Federated National Launching Another Florida Home Insurer, Monarch National
Jul 28 2014 // Florida homeowners’ insurer Federated National Holding Co. and the Canadian bank and investment manager C.A. Bancorp Inc. have agreed to form a new Florida-based homeowners insurance carrier to be named Monarch...
Florida Drunk Driver Run Over By Own Vehicle
Jul 25 2014 // Police said an intoxicated man was run over by his own pickup truck after he got into a road rage incident during a rainstorm. The incident happened Tuesday evening in Gainesville, Florida. The Gainesville Sun reported...
Are Storm Shutters Unsafe?
Jul 24 2014 // Esther Mibab felt nervous in her home in The Acreage in West Pam Beach, Florida. So nervous that she kept her accordion-style hurricane shutters closed, even in the off-season. Closed and locked. From the...
Jury Says Florida Church Must Pay Burn Victim
Jul 24 2014 // Jurors in Florida have determined that the Agape Baptist Church must pay $471,798.50 to a man who was severely burned after setting fire to a pile of trash while working off community service hours. The verdict in Ocala...
Florida Frets That With Proposed Rate Cut, Citizens Could Be Too Competitive
Jul 22 2014 // Florida’s state-backed property insurer’s proposed rate reduction is raising questions about whether it will make the insurer competitive with the private market. Citizens Property Insurance Corp. recently...
Florida Jury’s $23.6B Tobacco Award Likely to Be Reduced
Jul 21 2014 // A decision by a Florida jury to impose punitive damages of $23.6 billion against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. on Friday is likely to be rejected on appeal or the award reduced substantially, lawyers with expertise in jury...
Painkiller Prescribing Highest in South; Florida Reverses Trend
Jul 21 2014 // Health care providers in some states prescribe far more painkillers than those in other states, according to a new government report. Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2012...
Surplus Lines Tax Sharing Solution Still Up for Debate
Jul 21 2014 // Things have changed a bit for the surplus lines industry since the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act, (NRRA) part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation, passed in 2010. The NRRA’s implementation has...
Florida Gov. Scott Agrees to Meet with Climate Scientists
Jul 18 2014 // Florida Gov. Rick Scott said his administration would be “happy to meet” with 10 scientists from Florida universities who want to talk about climate change, a subject he has been reluctant to address. A letter...
Florida’s Heritage Assumes Sunshine State Policies, Adds 150 Agents
Jul 16 2014 // Florida’s Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc. said it has it assumed approximately $59 million in annualized premium from the insolvent Sunshine State Insurance Co. Effective June 27, 2014, the policies were assumed by...
Florida Sheriff’s Office Pays $1.15M in Wrongful Death
Jul 10 2014 // The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has paid $1.15 million to the estate of a mentally ill woman who died in her jail cell. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the Tampa Bay Times that 50-year-old Jennifer DeGraw should have...
6.5 Million Homes from Maine to Texas at Risk for Storm Surge: CoreLogic
Jul 10 2014 // More than 6.5 million homes along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of storm surge inundation, representing nearly $1.5 trillion in total potential reconstruction costs. More than $986 billion of that risk is...
Florida Indian Tribe Not Liable in Fatal Car Crash
Jul 8 2014 // An appeals court has ruled that a South Florida Indian tribe cannot be held liable for a $4.1 million wrongful death judgment stemming from a fatal 1998 car crash. The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that the Miccosukee...
Judge OKs Florida $2.2M Wrongful Death Award Against Sheriff
Jul 7 2014 // A federal judge has upheld a jury’s $2.26 million wrongful death award against the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in a case where two deputies shot and repeatedly shocked a suspect. The Ocala Star-Banner...
Southeast Has Higher Tornado Fatality Risk Than Midwest
Jul 7 2014 // Oklahoma and Kansas may have the reputations as tornado hot spots, but Florida and the rest of the Southeast are far more vulnerable to killer twisters, a new analysis shows. Florida leads the country in deaths calculated...
Florida Sends ‘Hurricane Tax’ to Early Retirement
Jul 7 2014 // A 1.3 percent surcharge on most property/casualty policies in Florida to help pay for past hurricane claims is coming to an end earlier than originally planned. The Florida Cabinet voted recently to end the assessment on...
People – Southeast
Jul 7 2014 // Florida’s BB&T Insurance Services has promoted Gino Littlestone to senior vice president in BB&T-Oswald Trippe and Co.’s commercial lines division specializing in condominiums. Littlestone has been...
Painkiller Prescribing Varies By State, Highest in South; Florida Reverses Trend: CDC
Jul 2 2014 // Health care providers in some states prescribe far more painkillers than those in other states, according to a new government report. Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2012 –...
Florida Approves Southern Oak Take-Out of 10,000 Policies from Citizens
Jul 2 2014 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) said it has approved the removal of up to 10,000 multi-peril personal residential policies from the state-backed property insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corp. by...
Forecast Update: North Carolina on Watch for Hurricane Arthur
Jul 2 2014 // Tropical Storm Arthur is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane within two days and threaten North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where tourists are visiting for the Fourth of July holiday, while also adding to heavy rain...
