Something very interesting happened last week in the Sunshine State. A comprehensive bill i) Mandating BI coverage for the first time in state history; ii) Legislatively approving Florida’s crazy bad-faith case law; and iii) Eliminating PIP passed both houses.
Where do I stand? I do both Plaintiff and Defense PIP in FLA, so I am saddened that my $3000 attorney fee and cost settlements may end. I also think the new bad faith statute will trip up insurance carriers more than the Harvey v. Geico standard. Also, eliminating threshold will lead to larger verdicts and more reversals where the jury find for Plaintiff on LOP medical bills but denies compensation for pain and suffering.
The PIP system is quite broken here, only beat out by the roofing cases and the out of control litigation on those matters. Yet, the way people drive in Florida, PIP is a very helpful coverage. There was a compromise bill that I thought would pass – it would replace PIP with $5,000 in mandatory Medpay coverage. The House did not want to pass it.
Long term, that would be preferable to the entire elimination of PIP. I wrote all the members of the House in Florida, but did not succeed in the enactment of a compromise bill.
The last step is for Gov. Ron DeSantis to either sign the bill, the veto the bill or do nothing…
