(Matt Whitaker / New York Occasions)
The 2022 Florida Legislature enacted the property insurers’ checklist of protections from dangerous religion claims in Florida. Topping the checklist was Florida’s Unhealthy Religion Statute, Subsection 624.155(1)(b). That was the property insurers’ biggest concern, and it has been the best concern of each insurer doing enterprise in Florida because it was enacted.
Extra exactly, the best concern to any insurer is the availability of the Unhealthy Religion Statute that makes an insurer’s bad-faith settlement conduct actionable in Florida. Fla. Stat. § 627.155(1)(b)1. Dr. Johnson as soon as wrote that there’s nothing like an individual’s impending execution to focus the thoughts. Effectively, in Florida, there may be nothing just like the prospect of being sued to focus the thoughts (together with insurers).
In 2022, issues modified for property insurers in Florida. Part 624.1551 was enacted to make exceptions for property insurers. Alone amongst insurance coverage firms, property insurers had been granted a return to the previous so far as dangerous religion legal responsibility in Florida is anxious. It was that there was no such factor as dangerous religion publicity to any insurance coverage firms issuing “first-party” insurance policies or insurance coverage contracts for protection claims by their policyholders, comparable to medical insurance firms and fireplace insurance coverage carriers.
Part 624.1551 modified the main focus however just for property insurers. Now folks asking for “extracontractual” damages first should show that the property insurer is responsible for a breach of contract. Here is the factor: Unhealthy-faith settlement conduct in Florida was by no means a breach of the insurance coverage contract.
You thought the calendar mentioned 2023? Not in Florida, a minimum of not for property insurers. Their focus is on the previous, and welcome to it. You may keep so long as you do not attempt to sue a property insurer for dangerous religion.
The writer’s article, Customers Had No Voice: Modifications to Property Insurers’ Legal guidelines in Florida, is scheduled for publication this week by Thomson Reuters’ Insurance coverage Litigation Reporter.
Please learn the disclaimer. ©2023 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
