The people of Florida are in big trouble! The new House Bill 837 ( and Senate Bill 236) is possibly the biggest insurance company bailout in history. The goal of the bill is to make it harder for injured people to recover damages and solely to save insurance companies money. How does this help the people of Florida who voted for these representatives? Insurance companies in Florida are having record profits. Why do they need a bailout that hurts the people of Florida?
House and Senate Bills propose sweeping reforms and the result is devastating for injury victims and Florida’s most vulnerable.
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What Tampa Bay Lawmakers Are Supporting This Nonsense?
House Of Representatives:
Adam Anderson
Kimberly Berfield
Linda Chaney
Berny Jacques
Senate:
Ed Hooper
Nick Deceglie
Contact Your REP and Tell Them to Vote No
Use this link to find your Florida State House Rep and send them an email to tell them to Vote NO on HB 837:
https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/representatives
Use this link to find your Florida State Senator and send them an email to tell them to Vote NO on SB 236:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators
Tell them that a vote for this bill is directly against the people who elected them!
House Bill 837
The new House Bill 837 will make it very hard for Floridians to file lawsuits against insurance companies. Injury victims who need to file insurance claims will also face major changes with the new bill including:
- Less time to take action (a reduced statute of limitations for negligence-based claims)
- Standard for bad-faith actions that will most likely tip the scales in favor of insurance companies
- Regulation on third party claims that arise from a single occurrence
- Poses limitations on attorney fee provisions when there is a claim against an insurer
- New, unrealistic standards for providing evidence in a claim
- Moving from pure to modified comparative negligence (if a plaintiff is more than 50% at fault, they can’t seek any damage recovery)
Senate Bill 236
House Bill 837 has a companion bill: Senate Bill 236. Similar to House Bill 837, Senate Bill 236 will moderate attorney fees in civil cases, reduce deadlines for negligence claims, provide standards for bad faith, and reframe standards of evidence in civil actions.
Additionally, injury victims who are partially at fault for their injuries may no longer be eligible to recover damage compensation.
Supporters and critics recently gathered in Tallahassee to discuss their concerns regarding senate Bill 236. One attendee who opposed the bill testified that his daughter was murdered in her apartment where she worked for the owners. Now, senate bill 236 is trying to remove the burden of premises liability for property owners to prevent people from getting harmed, injured, or killed on their property.
The Bill Is Bad News for Florida Insurance Policyholders
With the new legislature, injury victims will have limited opportunity to win fair compensation for their damages. And, they won’t have much legal recourse for insurance companies who treat them unfairly or undercut them. There is simply no way to hold the insurance companies accountable. What kind of system is this?
How The Bill Will Affect Injury Victims in Florida?
Senator Geraldine Thompso of Orlando stated that the bill “flips the duty to act in good faith on the consumer, even though the insurance companies are the ones acting in bad-faith”.
