Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
State Farm Charges Chiro Clinics with Fraud in Gaming Florida’s PIP Law
Feb 3 2022 // In a federal lawsuit filed this week, State Farm Insurance accuses a chiropractor and his string of Florida clinics of widespread fraud by regularly and falsely claiming that car accident victims needed emergency care, so...
M.J. Hall in California Introduces D&O, EPL and FL Cannabis Coverage
Feb 3 2022 // San Francisco, California-based M.J. Hall & Co. is introducing directors and officers liability, employment practices liability and fiduciary liability insurance coverages for cannabis business owners. The coverages,...
Florida Senate Committee Approves Actual-Cash-Value Roof Bill
Feb 2 2022 // It came later than some had expected, but Florida’s Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on Wednesday passed a much-anticipated bill that aims to close gaps left by last year’s insurance reform...
Florida Farm Bureau Action Plan Says it Will Stop Writing New HO Policies
Feb 1 2022 // Another Florida property insurer is taking major steps to cut its losses, including suspending the writing of new homeowner policies starting this week – the latest warning sign about the state’s distressed...
Florida Senate Approves Bill That Would Limit Claims Histories to Three Years
Feb 1 2022 // Florida property/casualty insurers would have to produce claims histories that go back only three years instead of five when requested by policyholders, under a bill passed last week by the state Senate. Senate Bill 156,...
Florida Jury Awards $110M, Largest Yet in Earplug Suits Against 3M
Jan 28 2022 // A federal jury on Thursday awarded $110 million to two U.S. Army veterans who said combat earplugs sold by 3M Co to the military caused them to suffer hearing damage, the largest verdict yet to result from hundreds of...
Brightway Adds New Franchises in Florida
Jan 28 2022 // Jacksonville-based Brightway Insurance announced that it has opened two new franchises in Florida. Arturo Garcia opened Brightway, The Garcia Agency, in Tampa, Fla. And Scott Keit opened Brightway, The Scott Keit Agency,...
Florida Senator Tries Cat Fund Changes to Cut Cost of Property Insurance
Jan 28 2022 // Seeing no action on bills that would address Florida’s spiraling property insurance problems head-on, one state senator took a different route Thursday and proposed reducing insurers’ payments to the...
Hilb Adds Another Florida Broker Firm
Jan 25 2022 // The Hilb Group, a national property and casualty brokerage firm, announced it has acquired Insurance Consultants of Central Florida. The Winter Park-based ICCF is a full-service broker offering individual, group and...
Florida Rate Hearing Highlights Southern Fidelity’s Dire Position, Lack of Action on Senate Bill
Jan 24 2022 // The head of one of the larger property insurance companies in Florida said Friday that without a doubling of some of its rates, it will be forced to seek more capital from investment firms, a prospect that may not be...
Florida Lawsuit Charges United P&C With RICO Violations in Widespread Claims Denials
Jan 24 2022 // In the war between restoration companies and insurers in Florida, contractors suing carriers in assignment-of-benefits claims is nothing new. And insurers have long argued that some construction firms are colluding with...
Florida Senate Votes to Keep Insurers’ Fraud Reports Exempt from Open Records
Jan 21 2022 // The 2022 Florida Senate has passed its first bill that affects insurance companies, but the measure has little to do with losses, rates or litigation costs. On Wednesday, by a vote of 35-0, the chamber approved Senate Bill...
Florida OIR To Hold Hearings Friday on Big Rate Increases for Three Carriers
Jan 20 2022 // Florida regulators will hold hearings Friday, Jan. 21, on another round of hefty rate hikes requested by property insurers facing losses in the state’s distressed property insurance market. Southern Fidelity...
Drugmaker Endo Signs $65 Million Opioid Settlement with Florida
Jan 19 2022 // Drugmaker Endo International plc said on Tuesday it had agreed to pay up to $65 million to resolve claims by the state of Florida and local governments that the drugmaker helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic. The deal is...
Committee Approves Florida Surplus Lines Bill; Stiffens Penalties for Adjusters
Jan 19 2022 // Florida took a step toward opening its distressed property insurance market to more carriers Tuesday when a Senate committee approved a bill that would let Florida-based surplus lines insurers sell surplus policies in...
Florida Power & Light Class Action Opens Door to Subrogation, Future Storm Claims
Jan 18 2022 // A Miami judge’s certification of a lawsuit against Florida’s largest utility company as a $10 billion class action, with damage claims from more than 4 million people who lost power in Hurricane Irma, could...
Florida Lawsuit Charges United P&C With RICO Violations in Widespread Claims Denials
Jan 14 2022 // In the ongoing war between restoration companies and insurers in Florida, contractors suing carriers in assignment-of-benefits claims is nothing new. And insurers have long argued that some construction firms are colluding...
Insurers That Assume Insolvents’ Policies Could be Covered by Florida Cat Fund
Jan 13 2022 // Private insurers, not just the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., would be eligible for reimbursement from a hurricane catastrophe fund for policies they assume from insolvent carriers, under a bill approved by a...
‘Game Changer’: Florida Supreme Court Ruling Could Chill Punitive Damages Claims
Jan 13 2022 // Punitive damages, long the scourge of businesses named in lawsuits, and a tricky issue for insurers, may soon be much harder to come by in Florida after a recent opinion handed down by the state Supreme Court. “This...
Florida Claims Litigation Drops Again in December
Jan 12 2022 // The volume of claims litigation in Florida continues to subside and by December had dropped almost 50% below last summer’s high point, a lawsuit-tracking service announced Wednesday. December data from...
