Recently, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky spoke at the 2025 Florida Chamber of Commerce Insurance Summit, emphasizing the importance of tort reform and the positive impact on Florida’s insurance market, but warning against backsliding.
Florida enacted major insurance reforms in 2022 and 2023 to stabilize the troubled market by curbing litigation and attracting greater interest from private insurers and reinsurers.
Key property and casualty insurance reforms target numerous areas such as abusive allocations, one-way attorney fees and exaggerated claims litigation.
Several P&C re/insurers have reportedly entered the market since the reforms, while litigation related to property claims is said to have fallen to pre-2019 levels.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Yaworsky noted in his keynote speech on the second day of the summit that the state’s insurance market is going through quite a period.
“If in 2016 you saw a report from the Office of Insurance Regulatory Commission that litigation abuse was starting to create systemic problems in our market, you were right. If in 2018 you saw us release further reports and provide testimony and provide your own testimony in the Legislature and in public square forums about how this market is on the brink of collapse due to uncovered patterns of litigation abuse, water loss, AOBs and other issues we are seeing in the litigation space, you would be right.” Yaworski.
He continued: “If you saw a report from the Office of Insurance Regulation in 2019 showing that Florida accounted for 8% of all property claims and 76% of lawsuits in the United States, you were right. If you see in 2021 that our market is on the verge of collapse, with our consumers losing coverage, companies fleeing our market, and reinsurers simply unwilling to cover, then you are right.
“If in 2022 and 2023 you join the office, you join the governor, you join Speaker Reyna, you join Senate President Passimo and Senator Boyd, and you say if we pass these reforms, relief will come, our market will stabilize, we will go from the laughingstock of the national insurance market to everyone now looking for solutions to their own problems, you would be right.”
Yaworski went on to say that as 2025 comes to an end, there is evidence that the reforms have worked and provided much-needed relief and stability.
“We can make it clear that this market has stabilized, consumers are feeling relieved, we have more choices for people than we have in decades, and our companies are better capitalized to deal with any situation than they have been in years,” Yaworski said. “We are right. This market is better for it. Our people are better for it. Florida can continue to grow, it can continue to be a place that families can call home through these actions.”
As Yaworsky points out, tort reform like this often causes problems, particularly as consumers no longer have the option of litigating and are therefore at the mercy of insurance companies.
“I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve been to Miami, I’ve driven on the toll road, I’ve watched cable TV. In a litigation environment, there still seems to be services available for claims,” Yaworski said.
“So let’s not beat around the bush about what any reversal of reforms would do. It would amount to billions of dollars in taxes going behind the backs of the people of Florida to subsidize an industry that appears to be doing well. We cannot roll back our hands on these reforms. We must move forward. I ask everyone here to stand with the Governor, the office, CFO Patronis and CFO Ingolia and once again defend these good laws, not because they are in your own interest, but because they are right for the state of Florida.”
“It is vital in the coming decades that we have a responsible market that can handle and bear the risks we face. There are many risks. Two of the chief ones are the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, which love to storm this lovely sandbar on which we have built our paradise,” he added.
Yesterday, on the first day of the summit, a panel discussed reinsurance rates ahead of key renewals in January and mid-year with a focus on Florida.