Citizens Insurance seeing fewer lawsuits

The share of lawsuits against Citizens Property Insurance Corp. originating from South Florida has declined sharply. Lawsuits against the so-called insurer of last resort have declined statewide from 6,251 between January and July of 2021 to 3,600 during the same period this year, according to Citizens research. The percentage of cases filed in state circuit courts against Citizens from Broward, Palm Beach and Miami Dade counties declined from 88%in 2020 to 55%during the first seven months of 2025, the research shows. In addition, the tri-county region was the source of 38%of 1,661 cases sent since 2024 to an arbitration panel that Citizens helps to fund. And the percentage of notices of intent to litigate against Citizens filed to the Department of Financial Services from the three counties declined from 82%in 2021 to 39%between January and July, Citizens’ figures show. By comparison, the percentage of lawsuits generated in South Florida remained at about 90%between 2014 and 2022, before the state Legislature enacted reforms in 2022 and 2023 to discourage litigation against insurance companies. In addition to the reforms, experts attributed the reduction to a number of factors, including a decline in the percentage of South Florida policies in Citizens and a lack of hurricane activity affecting the tri-county region. The recent declines indicate the legislative reforms are working by lowering insurers’ litigation costs, insurance insiders say. Lower costs have encouraged 17 new companies to enter the state and have enabled “most Florida-domiciled insurers” to file for rate decreases or to keep rates flat, said Mark Friedlander, senior director of media relations for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute. “Citizens was incurring more frivolous lawsuits than other 0insurers because of its large market share in South Florida,” Friedlander told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.“ Now, Citizens is experiencing the biggest impacts of tort reform curbing the abusive legal practices that caused Florida’s man-made risk crisis.” But plaintiffs attorneys say the drop-offs only show that policyholders were disadvantaged by the reforms. The reforms eliminated what was called the one-way attorney fee statute. It was a law in effect for more than a century that required insurers to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees when their lawsuit resulted in a settlement that paid them any amount, even$1, over their insurer’s original offer. Insurers complained that the statute was too generous and enticed policy holders, repair contractors and attorneys to file far more lawsuits than their counterparts in other states. https://enewspaper.sun-sentinel.com/shortcode/SUN315/edition/70b77abd-7d5e-48e6-83d4-3fdc8d51df11?page=bbfd352e-d83e-4fb8-bf00-79e6c63f6ab2&