Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A stand-alone bad faith bill emerged in the Senate this week in advance of the 2020 Session. Sen. Brandes (R), the bill sponsor, has previously sponsored bad faith legislation, is well versed in the subject, and feels strongly about finding solutions to the bad faith problem. SB 924, includes…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Civil Justice Subcommittee held a panel discussion about bad faith during its committee meeting on October 17, 2019. The presentations to the committee can be found here. The Committee also received some public testimony, discussed below, at the end of the meeting. Bad faith and other tort…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On October 10, 2019, the OIR held a rule hearing on the proposed repeal of the administrative rule requiring commercial general liability contracts to provide defense costs outside of the limit of liability. The OIR is proposing to repeal the rule as it is unnecessary or obsolete. FIC lobbyist,…
By: Greenberg Traurig The House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee met on September 18, 2019 to hear an update by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on the implementation of Chapter 2019-44, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 107), relating to wireless communications while driving. The meeting packet and presentation can be found here. The Florida…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The scooter bill, HB 453, was signed by the Governor on June 18, 2019 and took effect immediately. The bill allows local governments to adopt local ordinances governing the operation of scooters. It does not require scooter companies to be licensed in order to operate and does not have…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On June 13, 2019, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the autonomous vehicle (AV) bill passed during the 2019 Legislative Session. HB 311 has insurance and financial responsibility requirements for AVs. Fully autonomous vehicles logged on to an on-demand autonomous vehicle network or engaged in a prearranged ride must have…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The scooter bill, HB 453, is going to the Governor after being approved by the full Senate on May 1, 2019 with a vote of 32-1. The House approved the bill on April 25, 2019 with a vote of 115-0. The bill allows local governments to adopt local ordinances…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On April 24, 2019, the Florida House unanimously passed their autonomous vehicle (AV) bill (HB 311) with a vote of 110-0. On May 1, 2019, the Senate passed the House bill with a vote of 37-0. The bill now heads to Governor DeSantis for signature. The bill has insurance…