Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A House bill repealing Florida’s nonjoinder statute (HB 6075) was filed right before the bill filing deadline on Tuesday, January 9th. The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, a Republican from Ft. Myers. Rep. Fitzenhagen is an attorney for the personal injury firm of Morgan and Morgan and as…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On January 3, 2018, Sen. Steube-R, Sarastoa, filed another anti-insurance and pro-trial bar bill. The bill, SB 1452 repeals Florida’s nonjoinder statute. The nonjoinder statute allows an insurer to be joined as a party defendant in a lawsuit only at the time a judgment is entered or settlement…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On December 14, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion in a closely watched construction defect case, Altman Contractors v. Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Company. The case went to the Supreme Court on a certified question from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. FIC joined AIA and…
Proposed Rule Changes Anti Fraud 11-21-17.pdf
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Legislation was passed in 2017 (HB 1007) making significant and numerous changes to insurers’ anti-fraud plans and SIUs and establishing uniform anti-fraud prevention standards for all insurers. In response to the bill, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) has proposed changes to the current administrative rules dealing with insurers’…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Rep. Santiago (R-Deltona) filed the House insurance omnibus bill this week. HB 465 makes changes to various insurance laws on the following topics: Property Insurance:• Excluding complaints filed by AOB vendors from an insurer’s complaint ratio calculated by DFS• Diligent effort required for surplus lines agents to place residential…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Leadership in the House of Representatives rolled out two priority bills on October 26, 2017 dealing with the protection of trade secret information held by state agencies from Florida’s broad public records law. The bills are wide-ranging and will impact trade secret information submitted by insurers to the OIR,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On June 14, 2017, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed HB 377, a bill dealing with the statute of limitation and statute of repose in construction defect causes of action. The bill applies to causes of action that accrue on or after July 1, 2017. Under current law, a cause…