Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The insurer insolvency bill, HB 837, an agency bill of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) passed its first House committee on March 14, 2017 with two amendments to conform the House bill to the Senate companion, SB 730. The provisions in the amendments, described below, that relate to…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant Amendment 388014 [PDF] Young Florida would become one of the few states in the country to establish a pain and suffering cause of action in the negligent death of a dog or cat, according to an opponent of a bill which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. The bill (CS/SB…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel In a surprise move, Sen. Lee added his building code bill (SB 7000) to Sen. Brandes’ building inspector and administrator bill (SB 860) in committee on March 14, 2017. He made the move in the Community Affairs committee which is the committee he chairs. Interestingly, Sen. Brandes was not…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel All member sponsored bills have been filed for the 2017 Session. Following is a summary of miscellaneous insurance bills filed as of March 12, 2017 that FIC is following. These bills apply to more than one line of insurance or apply to commercial general liability policies. The summary was…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant HB 601 Personal Delivery Devices — by Williamson This strike-all amendment by Williamson was adopted and is now the bill: 476941 Williamson Delivery drones – an emerging new technology – would not be considered motor vehicles and subject to local government traffic control under CS/HB 601 approved Tuesday by the House…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 7, 2017, HB 377 dealing with the statutes of limitation and repose in construction defect claims, passed its second committee. The bill was not amended. The bill is now in its last committee. The bill specifies when a construction contract is considered complete for purposes of…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed the insurance omnibus bill, SB 454, on March 6, 2017 with amendments. The bill impacts multiple lines of insurance and has three committees left. The bill passed with a vote of 7-2. The two “no” votes were cast by Sen. Farmer,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 3, 2017, Sen. Flores, Chair of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee and Senate President Pro Tempore, filed an unfriendly insurance bill, SB 1746. Although most of the provisions in the bill apply only to property insurance, there are a few provisions that apply to other lines…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The OIR will hold rule development workshops on March 8th and 9th on proposed changes to about 100 rules. The changes are designed to update the rules to reflect the electronic filing process. The changes proposed will likely affect all insurers and all lines of insurance. It appears…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee unanimously approved HB 377 on February 16, 2017 with one substantive amendment that rewrote the bill. The amendment can be found here. The bill specifies when a construction contract is considered complete for purposes of the statute of repose and statute of…