The Consumer Dividend of Legal Reform
As we discussed last November, Florida’s groundbreaking legal reforms from 2022-2023 have been yielding tangible savings for consumers. These reforms have allowed the state’s major auto insurers to implement premium reductions of up to 15%, with homeowners’ insurance premiums seeing significant decreases as well. In the words of Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky, “[w]e are seeing nothing but good news across all data points for Florida’s auto and home insurance markets.”
More recent reporting has revealed double-digit decreases in homeowners’ premiums in certain Florida counties, and the improving health of the state’s insurance market has resulted in the lowest number of active policies administered by Citizens Property Insurance, Florida’s state-backed insurer, in 14 years.
Governor Ron DeSantis, Insurance Commissioner Yaworsky, and other advocates have consistently pointed to the 2022-2023 legal reforms as the primary drivers behind these improvements. Recent data further support this claim, revealing a dramatic drop in litigation filings throughout Florida coinciding with insurance market improvements.
In 2019, Florida was responsible for over 76% of all homeowners’ insurance claims litigation nationwide, despite accounting for just 7% of claims filed. This disproportionate level of litigation placed a significant burden on the state’s insurance market and consumers. However, the reforms have successfully reversed this trend, leading to a steady decline in insurance-related litigation. From 2023 to 2024, overall litigation filings dropped by 23%. Gov. DeSantis’ office asserts that “frivolous” property claim litigation then fell by 25% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Notably, the governor’s office stated that insurance litigation filings declined consistently in every month of 2025, though they had not yet released full-year numbers at the time of this writing. If that trend holds, insurance litigation filings would have fallen below pre-2018 levels in 2025.
The consistent decrease in litigation, followed by substantial rate reductions, highlights the virtuous cycle that Florida’s legal reforms created. Deterring abusive lawsuits against businesses reduces costs for those businesses, which in turn reduces prices for consumers. It’s a simple equation, and one that other states should look to replicate.
Taking the Next Step
In 2026, Florida lawmakers have an opportunity to go further. SB 1396 would further strengthen the state’s legal environment, prevent Florida courts from “turning into casinos for investors,” and secure more savings for consumers. By mandating transparency and creating rules around third-party litigation funding, the “Litigation Investment Safeguards and Transparency Act” would help prevent lawsuit investors from taking advantage of the parties whose lawsuits they fund, and would shed light on foreign-sourced funding operating in U.S. courts. States like Georgia, Montana, and Oklahoma have already taken action – we certainly hope Florida does too.
