“Sweeping” Tort Reform Signed Into Law In Florida

A post from law firm Faegre Drinker details major provisions in a tort reform bill that was signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on March 28. They include a carrier-friendly redefinition of bad faith litigation; the elimination of “one-way” attorneys’ fees; a shorter statute of limitations for negligence claims; and a change in the comparative negligence standard (except for medical negligence cases) from pure to “modified,” so that carriers are now protected from claims in cases where the plaintiffs are more than 50 percent at fault.

As an indicator of how sweeping these changes are expected to be, there was a frantic rush of more than 100,000 filings just before the bill was signed, according to the Faegre post.