Florida’s insurance market is showing clear signs of improvement following the Sunshine State’s ambitious legal reforms. As a reminder, in 2022 and 2023, the Florida legislature passed sweeping legal reform measures reshaping key areas of law and public policy, particularly impacting personal injury claims and litigation against insurers. Key changes included reducing the statute of limitations for negligence claims, modifying comparative negligence rules, determining medical expenses based on the actual amounts paid instead of billed charges, and eliminating most one-way shifting of attorney’s fees.
Florida’s legal reforms have started to make an impact, with the state’s property insurance market showing signs of recovery. As recently reported in Insurance Journal, Florida Peninsula, one of the largest property insurers in the state, “filed in July for an 8.4% statewide average decrease for homeowners’ policies and a 12% average decrease for condominium owners,” and they are not alone. Writing in Florida Politics, the James Madison Institute’s Doug Wheeler observes an emerging trend of slower increases and actual declines in property insurance premiums, and notes that more insurers are once again offering policies in Florida—lowering costs and providing more options for homeowners.
Wheeler also writes that recent data show a significant decline in lawsuits filed against insurers, with insurers reporting fewer instances of bad faith claims in particular. With fewer lawsuits filed, some plaintiffs’ firms are starting to shift investment away from homeowner insurance litigation practices in the state. Notably, Calle Ocho, a Miami news publication, reported earlier this year that Morgan & Morgan had shrunk its roster of Florida homeowner insurance attorneys from 30 to five in response to the elimination of one-way fee shifting under the 2022 and 2023 reforms.
Similar changes are emerging when it comes to auto insurance. On July 29, 2025, Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation announced that Florida’s “top five auto writer insurance groups are indicating an average -6.5% rate change” for 2025—in sharp contrast to the cost increases of recent years—and that much of this improvement is driven by reductions in litigation-related costs.
These reforms mark a major step forward for Florida’s consumers and businesses, many of whom have long struggled with rising insurance costs driven by excessive litigation. The plaintiffs’ bar, of course, feels differently.
Earlier this year, the plaintiffs’ bar sought to undermine these advancements by supporting the introduction of SB 832 and HB 6017, which would have reversed much of the progress. SB 832 aimed to allow plaintiffs to introduce evidence of billed medical costs rather than the actual amounts paid, thus inflating damages. Additionally, the legislation contained language that would have reinstated one-way fee shifting, enabling prevailing plaintiffs to recover attorneys’ fees from insurance companies. Meanwhile, HB 6017 sought to remove the existing cap on noneconomic damages recoverable in certain medical malpractice cases.
ILR and our business and civil justice community partners in the Florida business community spoke up and took action to make it clear how destructive these rollbacks would be. SB 832 ultimately failed after extensive back-and-forth, and though HB 6017 passed, Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down on his legal reform record by vetoing it.
We anticipate the plaintiffs’ bar will renew efforts to overturn these critical legal reforms next year. The business community and advocates must stay vigilant and prepare to counter these anticipated attempts. Together, we can protect Florida consumers from rising insurance costs and defend businesses against excessive litigation.