From the courts to the parks
Photo by Janko Ferlic from Pexels
While COVID-19 shut down business and other activities, it didn’t slow the growth of lawsuits in Florida, with clerks reporting a huge influx of new cases and a growing million case backlog, as most courts remain closed to civil jury trials. Meanwhile, there’s a new coronavirus immunity model act in the works, plus an encouraging sign of better times. It’s all in this week’s digest of stories on the virus and the Florida market.
Judicial Logjam: The Florida Trial Court Budget Commission reports the backlog of court cases grew from 992,000 cases in September to an estimated 1.14 million cases, according to the latest numbers. Meanwhile, clerks report a big wave of new filings in all types of civil cases, including foreclosures and contracts, and debt. Some judicial circuits are participating in an ongoing pilot program allowing a small number of civil jury trials to proceed, under strict distancing and barrier systems within courtrooms. South Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County and the 15th Judicial Circuit which includes Palm Beach County are among them.
NCOIL Model Act: The National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) is poised to adopt a COVID-19 Limited Immunity Model Act at its spring meeting next month. The measure was approved recently by NCOIL’s Property & Casualty Insurance Committee, following months of input from a diverse group of stakeholders.
“This Model allows us to be proactive by developing Model Legislation to offer assistance to states as they adapt during these challenging times,” said NCOIL CEO, Commissioner Tom Considine, in a release. “We developed the Model being mindful that a blanket level of immunity should not be provided but rather a presumption of protection should be provided for businesses and individuals that act in a reasonable manner and abide by certain health and safety measures in order to remove from businesses during this time of crisis the specter of frivolous lawsuits when the businesses have complied with all CDC guidance.”
Sign of Better Times: As the coronavirus recovery continues here, both in-state and out-of-state visitors are returning to some of Florida’s most popular attractions and events. Disney World in Orlando reports it has completely sold out of tickets to its four theme parks for this Spring Break week. Disney’s reservation system, which was put in place when the parks reopened last summer to manage reduced guest capacity, shows no tickets are available for the seven-day period that started this past Saturday through this coming Friday. An hour east in Daytona Beach, tourism officials estimate they’ll end up with about 300,000 visitors for the annual Bike Week that just ended last night. A typical year sees upwards of 500,000 visitors for the famous motorcycle jamboree, which is estimated to generate $75 million for the famous beachfront community.
LMA Newsletter of 3-15-21
