Report: Property insurance lawsuits fell three years after legislative reforms

A new report from Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation reveals that property insurance lawsuits in the state have decreased by nearly half since 2020 following significant legislative reforms. These changes, enacted in 2022 and 2023, aimed to stabilize a volatile market by eliminating one-way attorney fees and curbing excessive litigation. For the property insurance sector, this shift has led to a notable reduction in rate increases and the entry of 20 new insurers into the Florida market.

According to data compiled by Lisa Miller & Associates from the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), Florida’s share of nationwide homeowner lawsuits plummeted from 79% in 2020 to approximately 41% in 2025. During the same period, the state’s portion of national insurance claims fell from 9% to less than 5%. This dramatic reduction is attributed to legislative reforms passed in 2022 and 2023 that targeted the state's reputation for being overly litigious, which had previously driven many private carriers to exit the market and overburdened the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

A primary driver of the litigation decline was the elimination of guaranteed one-way attorney fees, a policy that Lisa Miller, a former deputy insurance commissioner, noted had created a "gross incentive to sue." The OIR report highlights the financial disparity in litigated claims, finding that claims involving lawsuits cost nearly five times more than those without. Furthermore, the data shows that only about 8% of the funds resulting from such litigation actually reach the homeowners, with the vast majority of the remaining money going toward legal fees.

The impact of these reforms is beginning to manifest in market pricing and competition, with the 30-day average for homeowners' rate requests dropping by 6.9%. This represents a significant shift from the double-digit rate hikes that characterized the market prior to the legislative changes. Additionally, the OIR announced in May that 20 new insurers have entered the Florida market since the reforms were implemented. This influx of capital includes an expansion in the condo association sector, where the number of wind-only policy writers in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties grew from one to five.