Lack of cooperation in reporting plaintiff attorney fees
Consumer insurance reforms are credited for Florida’s declining auto insurance rates, regulators push for dollar amounts of attorney fees in claim settlements, Citizens defends its alternative dispute resolution process, plus a new report puts catastrophe losses in perspective. It’s all in this week’s Property Insurance News.
Auto Rates Declining: The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) reports that the state’s top five automobile insurance writers – which make up nearly 80% of the market – dropped rates by an average of 6.5% so far in 2025. That’s down from a 4.3% increase in 2024 and an average 31.7% increase in 2023. OIR also reports a “remarkable reduction” in the personal auto liability loss ratio, down to 53.3% on average in 2024—the lowest in the nation. Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky notes “some decreases are as much as 11.5%…thanks again to effective legislative reforms.” Among them: 2023’s SB 1002, prohibiting assignment of benefits (AOB) for windshield repairs, which resulted in an 80% decline in auto glass claim lawsuits. Despite the reduction, Progressive may breach the excess profits rule and have to send small refunds to current and former policyholders, according to the Insurance Journal. “They basically took out the incentive for what the governor called ‘billboard lawyers’ to sue insurance companies,” I told WTVT-TV Fox 13 Tampa. “We’re seeing what we need to see in the marketplace, which was a reduction in lawsuits,” I told WFTS-TV ABC Action News in Tampa.
What Are Those Lawyers’ Fees? That’s what OIR wants to know – and it’s not giving up. It issued an Informational Memorandum to property insurance companies reminding them of all annual claim reporting requirements, including claimant’s attorney fees, claimant’s attorney expenses, and claimant’s attorney contingency risk multipliers. This requirement was part of SB 76 under the 2021 Insurance Consumer Protections reform passed by the Florida legislature, and is incorporated under Section 624.424(11), F.S..
“A review of filings made over the past three years indicates that some insurers may not be accurately reporting the amounts…To the extent that third-parties object to providing such information to insurers attempting to settle claims, such objections do not eliminate insurers’ reporting requirements,” writes OIR. “Insurers are encouraged to examine all legal options to ensure compliance with the reporting requirements, up to and including changes to policy forms.”
It’s not that insurance companies haven’t asked plaintiff lawyers for this breakout of costs – it’s that the plaintiff lawyers have refused to provide it. We are working with several industry stakeholders to discuss ways to gain compliance from plaintiff lawyers who refuse to share the fee data required by law. We urge insurance company readers to work with legal counsel for ways we can comply with a statute where third parties won’t provide the mandatory data. Please connect with me at [email protected] for further discussion.
Citizens New Legal Fight: To help reduce its costly litigation, the state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corporation in 2023 added language to its residential policies allowing Citizens or the policyholder to have a claim dispute handled by the state Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) instead of in the traditional court system. As we reported in June, Citizens data shows disputed claims are being closed faster with less expense than going to court and its Board has extended the program to its commercial policies. The plaintiff bar has objected to the practice, saying it’s not fair, and on August 1 a Hillsborough County circuit judge agreed and issued a temporary injunction. Citizens has since appealed that order, which automatically sets it aside, meaning the DOAH process can continue for now. Citizens is also facing a similar federal challenge in U.S. District Court in Miami. The complaint says the DOAH process violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
So Far, So Good for Cat Losses: Following a very active start to 2025 for natural catastrophes in the U.S., fewer high-cost events in the rest of the world have kept the first six months of the year manageable for governments and the insurance industry. That’s the news from Gallagher Re, in its latest report. Global economic losses reached $151 billion, the lowest first-half year (H1) total since 2021, yet still above the 2015-2024 H1 average. But global insured losses climbed to $84 billion, well above the decade average of $54 billion and the highest H1 total since 2011. This was primarily driven by January U.S. wildfires ($40 billion) and U.S. severe convective storm activity ($32 billion).
And Worth Noting: I love short educational videos and the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office is out with a new batch on the Florida Legislature’s recent repeal of the Diligent Effort process that requires agents to first shop for client policies in the admitted market, before going into the surplus lines market. My favorite one is the first one that says the duty is still there to make sure agents don’t put policies in surplus lines when they belong in the admitted market. So while the diligent effort form has gone away, there’s a new disclosure and we still need to keep the firewall between the two markets.
LMA Newsletter of 8-11-25
