Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, penned an op-ed in the Miami Herald, highlighting how Gov. Ron DeSantis’ lawsuit abuse reforms have started to “curb outrageous litigation bonanzas to improve and stabilize the Florida insurance market.”

Wilson highlighted how the eliminating of one-way attorney fees has been a big win for consumers:

For years, there was a major incentive for these meritless lawsuits known as “one-way attorney fees.” Simply put, these fees made lawsuits against your insurance carrier risk-free and created a landscape where Florida accounted for only about 7% of homeowners’ claims nationally but had nearly 80% of all homeowners’ insurance lawsuits in the country.

Clearly, these one-way attorney fees incentivized baseless lawsuits, even over very small amounts. Billboard trial lawyers stood to win attorney fees and not be responsible for paying defense fees if they won a case by just $1. The real losers were Florida homeowners, who faced higher insurance rates due to these actions. Recognizing this scam, the Florida Legislature and the governor took decisive action to end it.

This uneven playing field that led to mountains of litigation put insurance companies out of business and led to companies leaving Florida and also forced insurance rates to go higher.

Eliminating these fees has been a big win for consumers and has led to less litigation by all metrics and more private insurers writing policies in Florida, reflecting confidence that these reforms are having the intended result — more competition and a stabilized market to the benefit of Floridians.

Additionally, Wilson highlighted all the many successes of the lawsuit abuse reforms in bringing down costs:

• In 2024, Florida had the lowest average homeowners’ premium increases in the nation of just 1% compared to other states which have seen increases over 20%.
• 11 new homeowners’ insurance companies have entered the market over the past two years.
• Among the state’s top 10 insurance carriers, 60% have expanded their business and 40% have filed for rate decreases.
• The average rate increase has dropped from more than 21% in 2023 to a projected 0.2% for 2025.
• With major companies filing for rate reductions between 6% to 10.5%, auto insurance costs are also dropping.
• Since January 2024, 17 companies have filed for a rate decrease, and 34 have requested no change or increase.
• Citizens Property Insurance, the state-backed insurer of last resort, saw 371,295 policies removed from Citizens through takeout offers, over 22 times the number of policies removed two years earlier — proving the reforms are working.

Florida must continue to stay the course, and more and more states should adopt similar reforms to bring down costs and benefit consumers.