Florida’s P&C Insurance Market: Spiraling Toward Collapse

A consultant recently published a very interesting report that was presented to the Florida legislature concerning Florida's Property & Casualty ("P&C") insurance industry. And while there is much that may be learned from this report, the biggest takeaway is the mind-boggling amount of attorney's fees that are spent on these cases.

Since 2013, Florida insurers have paid out approximately $14 billion in attorneys fees and defense costs for first-party P&C cases. Notably, this amount is approximately 11 times greater than the amount of damages that were paid out to plaintiffs/insureds. The fees paid out to Plaintiff's attorneys alone accounted for approximately $10.8 billion, which was almost 9 times greater than the damages paid out to plaintiffs/insureds.

It is likely that these alarming numbers have been exacerbated by recent legislation and Florida Supreme Court decisions on multipliers and the Concurrent Causation Doctrine. However, regardless of the cause, it is clear that a handful of law firms are making billions of dollars at the expense of Florida's insurance companies, economy, and ultimately, state residents.