Understanding Florida House Bill 837: What It Means for You

Florida House Bill 837 signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on March 24, 2023 reformed personal injury law.  Some parts of the reforms even applied to accidents that occurred prior to March 24, 2023.  Accident victim’s lawyers prior to March 24, 2023, filed a large number of personal injury cases to avoid parts of the reforms.  Essentially, the reforms take away important rights from a victim of an accident and give greater benefit to the insurance carriers in Florida.

One area reformed by the bill is the statute of limitations.  Prior to March 24, 2023, if you were in a motor vehicle accident or had a slip and fall, the statute of limitations, the time period in which to file your case in the court was four years.  The four year statute of limitation still applies to accidents that occurred prior to March 24, 2023.  This time period was shortened by the bill to two years.  So, if your accident occurred for example, on March 25, 2023, you would only have two years from that date in which to file your case in the court or your case will be barred, you could not make any recovery.  What this means for victims is that their cases will have to be filed sooner, potentially rushing filing even though medical treatment is not complete or rushing settlement with offers of lesser amount to avoid greater cost that occurs when litigating a case in court.

Until the reforms, pure comparative negligence was Florida law.  What this meant was the finder of fact, usually a jury, determined if the victim bore any fault for the accident and if so, what percent was the victim at fault.  With pure comparative negligence, even if the finder of fact found the victim 90% at fault for the accident, he/she would recover 10% of their damages.  Now, with the reformed Florida law, comparative negligence is named modified.  This means that a victim cannot recover if he/she is found to be 50% or more at fault for the accident.  As such, in the scenario of the victim being held 90% at fault, the victim would recover nothing.  You can see that an intersection accident where there are no witnesses other than the two parties, each saying he or she had the green light becomes a risky venture to proceed with litigation.  Our office advises the purchase of a dash cam for your vehicle to assist with determining fault in a motor vehicle accident. A dash cam can be purchased through Amazon Prime for less then $100.00 and can be a significant investment and undisputable evidence to prove fault in a motor vehicle accident.

Another change with this bill is the presentation of a victim’s medical bills at trial.  No longer can total past medical charges be presented to the fact finder.  Only expenses actually paid for medical treatment may be presented whether it be by health insurance or out of pocket.  As far as future medical expenses, the expenses are based on charges that satisfy an amount for it to be considered paid.

Insurance carriers benefit even more with two other parts of the reform.  If an insurance carrier, for example, fails to timely respond or fails to respond to a victim’s demand with a good faith offer, the insurance carrier could be held in what is called bad faith.  Now, sufficient evidence (which is undefined by the bill) must be provided by the victim in a 90 day written notice to the insurance carrier to allow the carrier to correct the failure.  If the insurance carrier fails to correct the failure, the victim may be able to collect more than the coverage limits.

Another benefit to the insurance carrier is the removal or repeal of an award of attorney’s fees in most cases against the victim’s insurance carrier. Prior to the change in the law, an award of attorney fees to the prevailing insured was a deterrent to an insurance company wrongfully denying insurance coverage. The new law removes the penalty of paying attorney fees to the prevailing insured and places the financial expense of attorney fees on the individual insured to force an insurance carrier to reconsider the improper denial of insurance coverage. This shift in financial burden will lessen lawsuits against insurance companies by requiring the individual personally pay for attorney fees to protect their rights.

Florida’s 2023 tort reform will lead to constitutionality challenges.  However, in the meantime, victims of accidents will endure less access to courts and will receive offers of a lesser amount.