Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1606 passed the full Senate on March 9, 2020 without debate and with a vote of 40-0. A floor amendment allowing insurers to use hurricane model averages and authorizing the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) to examine an insurer’s managing general agents or holding company was withdrawn…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate unanimously passed a large courts measure that includes changing appellate jurisdiction for county courts on March 9, 2020, and sent the bill to the House for approval. The House is expected to agree to the bill. The county court appellate jurisdiction part of SB 1392 requires criminal…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 799 and HB 801 revamp Florida’s trade secret protection laws. The bills passed the full House on March 4, 2020 without any debate. The measures will be sent to the Senate for consideration and approval. Legislation revamping Florida’s trade secret laws were proposed the past few Sessions. …
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel There are several omnibus insurance bills in the House and Senate this Session. The only omnibus bill moving in the Senate is SB 1606 because the other omnibus bill, SB 1334, is stuck in committee. SB 1606 passed its last Senate committee, Appropriations, on March 3, 2020 without…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel During its meeting on March 3, 2020, the Senate Appropriations Committee amended part of its court jurisdiction bill (SB 1510) onto a different courts bill, SB 1392 (link). SB 1392 initially primarily dealt with allowing alternative offices for district court of appeal judges. SB 1510, the court jurisdiction stand-alone…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate asbestos trust claims bill is ready to be heard on the Senate floor after clearing its last committee on March 2, 2020 without amendment. The Senate bill was not controversial in committee. FIC supported the Senate bill in committee. The House bill (HB 741) has already…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The OIR backed credit for reinsurance bill that incorporates substantive provisions from the 2017 Covered Agreement between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) passed its last Senate committee on March 2, 2020. It was not amended. The House bill (HB 1211) already passed that chamber and was…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 295, a bill to revamp the construction defect process was postponed in its second House committee on February 27, 2020 when the bill sponsor said the bill needed more work. This likely kills the bill this year as it will not clear its assigned committees. The Senate companion…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate moved CFO Patronis’ consumer protection bill (SB 1492) out of its last committee on February 26, 2020 after adopting two amendments to the bill, one unfavorable amendment dealing with managed repair programs and one amendment dealing with public adjuster contract cancellation and estimate of loss. The bill…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House has two omnibus insurance bills moving this year, HB 359 and HB 895. They contain some of the same provisions but also have different provisions in them. The Senate also has two omnibus insurance bills filed, but one is stuck in its first committee, so the…