Floridians are currently embroiled in a debate concerning the efficacy of House Bill (HB) 837 and its complementing Senate Bill (SB) 236, both nearing eligibility for becoming law.
On one hand, critics argue that the laws will primarily benefit insurance companies rather than victims. On the other hand, proponents contend that the measures will help fight lawsuit abuse in the Sunshine State.
“Bad faith claims and lawsuit abuse are real problems for the Florida civil justice system. While these bills attempt to mitigate these issues, it is important that they do so impede victims from seeking compensation,” says personal injury attorney Mitchell Feldman of Feldman Legal Group.
Florida residents met to voice their concerns in a meeting attended by democratic senator Lauren Book and her republican counterpart, Senator Travis Hutson.
One such critic is Richard Purtz, a Southwest Florida board-certified civil trial attorney and managing partner of Goldstein Buckley Cechman, Rice, and Purtz, which specializes in personal injury cases.
“Primarily [HB 837 is] aimed at insurance and people that bring personal injury claims to limit what they can do, what they’re entitled to, limit what doctors can charge, protecting insurance companies from what’s known as bad faith claims,” Purtz said. “It also shortens the statute of limitations from four years to two years and makes some other changes that are designed to limit what injured parties can collect in a lawsuit,” he says.
The lawyer mentioned that plaintiffs will now have limited options when presenting evidence at trial if they lack insurance or a letter of protection with a physician under HB 837.
Bikers also came to the meeting to air their concerns. “It’s not often you see bikers cry, and I saw people shed a few tears. If you were to look at us, people [with] shirts like mine. You might notice that we belong to a certain demographic, and that’s the demographic that helps you get the super majority that you enjoy in this legislature today,” said Holly Hill of Sarasota.
One of the highly contentious reforms in the bills is reducing the statute of limitations from four years to only two. Sophia Spero, a crash victim, expressed her concerns: “Most people who are injured in accidents reach out to attorneys relatively soon after their injury. But what happens is not all the treatments complete in 60, or 90, or even 180 days, and sometimes it doesn’t finish until one or two years pass because people have multiple surgeries from that one single event.”
However, proponents defending the bills argue they will help fight bad-faith personal injury claims. According to Republican senator Travis Hutson, the integrity of the civil justice system will remain intact.
“In these proceedings, the jury can already hear about the crime and the criminal measures that are happening. So, I don’t see how that victimizes someone twice. Now, the difference is we’re telling the jury on the verdict form there may be some fault on the other side, too. You guys have to determine that out, and that’s going to be between the lawyers for the plaintiff and the defendant, and those lawyers are going to argue that in court, and I believe a competent jury will determine what’s best for that outcome.”
Andy Bolin, a board-certified civil trial lawyer at Bolin Law Group, also believes that the laws will put a stop to bad faith claims and inflated medical expenses. Speaking on behalf of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, he said, “You’ve heard a lot about how the accuracy and damages portion of this will correct phantom damages that are being submitted to our juries,” Bolin said. “But I also want to point out that it will also help cure a problem where, because of these inflated past medical expenses, good faith disputed claims, who my clients want to settle.. are unable to do so because of these inflated damages.”
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