Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Drugmaker Endo Signs $65 Million Opioid Settlement with Florida
Jan 19 2022 // Drugmaker Endo International plc said on Tuesday it had agreed to pay up to $65 million to resolve claims by the state of Florida and local governments that the drugmaker helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic. The deal is...
Committee Approves Florida Surplus Lines Bill; Stiffens Penalties for Adjusters
Jan 19 2022 // Florida took a step toward opening its distressed property insurance market to more carriers Tuesday when a Senate committee approved a bill that would let Florida-based surplus lines insurers sell surplus policies in...
Florida Power & Light Class Action Opens Door to Subrogation, Future Storm Claims
Jan 18 2022 // A Miami judge’s certification of a lawsuit against Florida’s largest utility company as a $10 billion class action, with damage claims from more than 4 million people who lost power in Hurricane Irma, could...
Florida Lawsuit Charges United P&C With RICO Violations in Widespread Claims Denials
Jan 14 2022 // In the ongoing war between restoration companies and insurers in Florida, contractors suing carriers in assignment-of-benefits claims is nothing new. And insurers have long argued that some construction firms are colluding...
Insurers That Assume Insolvents’ Policies Could be Covered by Florida Cat Fund
Jan 13 2022 // Private insurers, not just the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., would be eligible for reimbursement from a hurricane catastrophe fund for policies they assume from insolvent carriers, under a bill approved by a...
‘Game Changer’: Florida Supreme Court Ruling Could Chill Punitive Damages Claims
Jan 13 2022 // Punitive damages, long the scourge of businesses named in lawsuits, and a tricky issue for insurers, may soon be much harder to come by in Florida after a recent opinion handed down by the state Supreme Court. “This...
Florida Claims Litigation Drops Again in December
Jan 12 2022 // The volume of claims litigation in Florida continues to subside and by December had dropped almost 50% below last summer’s high point, a lawsuit-tracking service announced Wednesday. December data from...
King Insurance Buys Up Two More Florida Agencies: DMI and Insurance Den
Jan 12 2022 // King Insurance announced it has added two more Florida insurance agencies to its rapidly growing stable of firms in the Southeast. Don Martin Insurance, known as DMI agency, has offices in Orlando, Fanning Springs and...
No Need for Experts in Claims Litigation: Just Use Google Earth, Florida Bill Says
Jan 12 2022 // Insurers would no longer need to hire expensive expert witnesses in some claims disputes, but could rely on Google maps and images to show the age of property damage, if a Florida Senate bill becomes law and is endorsed by...
Citizens Starts Massive Florida Property Inspection Program This Month
Jan 11 2022 // Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is reminding agents that it is greatly expanding the number of property inspections, starting this month, in an effort to reduce its exposure. The inspections will come at no cost to the...
Florida OIR Says Claims Info Data Call Coming Early Next Year
Jan 11 2022 // Florida’s insurance commissioner announced that his office had begun a rulemaking process to draft a form insurers should use to report a wide range of data on claims, as required by legislation passed in...
Florida Passenger Train Line Kills 5th Person in a Month
Jan 10 2022 // A Brightline higher-speed train fatally struck a pedestrian who walked into its path Tuesday, the fifth death involving the railroad since it recently resumed operations after being shutdown because of the...
As Condos Age, More Owners Sell in Hot South Florida Market
Jan 10 2022 // For some South Florida condo dwellers, that tap on the shoulder could lead to the deal of a lifetime. The tri-county’s white-hot real estate market is prompting developers to take stock of the region’s older...
In Bad-Faith Claims, Florida Appeals Court Scores One for Insurer, One Against
Jan 10 2022 // Remember George Costanza’s trick in “Seinfeld,” the 1990s TV sitcom? When he couldn’t (or didn’t want to) pay his rent or other expense he would conveniently “forget” to sign the...
Patriot Growth Insurance Adds Six Agencies in Florida
Jan 7 2022 // Patriot Growth Insurance Services, a national agency, has acquired six Florida agencies, greatly expanding Patriot’s footprint in the Southeast. Pennsylvania-headquartered Patriot said in a news release that it had...
Florida Moving Company Owner Must Pay $13 Million for Using Reputable Competitor’s Name
Jan 7 2022 // A federal judge has ordered a South Florida moving company to pay more than $13 million for deceiving customers and using the name and trademark of an international competitor. Ohad Guzi and his King David Van Lines were...
People: Florida-based Vyrd Names Sales and Marketing Director
Jan 7 2022 // Vyrd Insurance Co., one of the few new insurers to brave the distressed Florida property insurance market in recent years, announced that industry veteran Elizabeth Bevelacqua has been named director of sales and...
Florida Condo Collapse Trial Now Set for 2023
Jan 6 2022 // A major lawsuit in the collapse of a Florida beachfront condominium building that killed 98 people will go to trial in March 2023, a judge said Wednesday. That’s about six months later than Miami-Dade Circuit Judge...
COVID Spike Forcing Florida Hospital’s Maternity Ward to Close, For Now
Jan 5 2022 // A South Florida hospital has temporarily closed its maternity ward due to staff-shortages related to recent outbreaks of COVID-19. Mothers-to-be who had planned on giving birth at Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale will...
Could New Florida Appeals Court Help on Insurance Litigation?
Jan 4 2022 // The Florida Supreme Court’s call for an additional appellate court and six – now seven – new judges in the state has met with mixed reviews, with some attorneys welcoming the idea, while others, including a few...
