Keeping up on the developments of property insurance coverage legislation is why so many individuals come to this weblog. U.S. District Judge Michael Moore not too long ago made some extent that some policyholder safety legal guidelines don’t have any tooth as a result of the policyholders which can be harmed can’t implement the insurance coverage legal guidelines designed to guard them. He not too long ago wrote:1
For higher or worse, Plaintiffs are proper to level out that Subsection (5)(a) will, at occasions, create a violation and not using a treatment—i.e., situations by which an insurer is discovered to have violated solely the curiosity provisions of Subsection (5)(a) with out some other violations meriting an omnibus advantages swimsuit. For occasion, have been Plaintiffs’ authorized and factual contentions to bear fruit within the case at bar with out the ‘sole basis’ clause, the Court estimates that Plaintiffs would stand to get better about $30,000.00 in damages.
The Court is troubled by such a regime: Subsection (5)(a) explicitly prohibits conduct whereas concurrently offering that conduct with a safe-harbor. And maybe more-than-coincidentally, the Court notes a transparent sample of this Defendant going through allegations of failure to pay curiosity underneath Subsection (5)(a). We are usually not right here to resolve whether or not State Farm has been a great neighbor. But rightfully or wrongfully, State Farm has been implicated in a number of comparable instances (a few of which this Order rests upon.)… Yet the actual fact stays that any flaw on this framework is legislative in nature, as can be its repair. The Court shall not second-guess a purposeful legislative scheme with out firmer statutory or authorized foundation to take action.
Florida Governor DeSantis and the present Florida Republican management are writing comparable insurance coverage legal guidelines which take away personal causes of motion for Florida policyholders who’re harmed in order that solely an administrative entity can do something concerning the violation. These are actually fake shopper protections, and Floridians ought to be upset that these politicians suppose residents is not going to catch on to the insurance coverage firm supported Republicans writing these legal guidelines.
Again, I’m a registered Republican and even gave a six-figure donation to a former Republican governor working for President. Republican Donald Trump is appropriate to say that Republican DeSantis and the Republican Florida political leaders have bought out to the “globalist” insurers.
In this case, State Farm delayed fee of the quantities owed, and curiosity owed can be over $30,000 required to be paid by Florida Statute. Did State Farm pay what the legislation requires it to pay? No. The downside is that Florida legislation doesn’t let the policyholder sue to implement the curiosity owed. So, State Farm didn’t pay it regardless of the legislation requiring that it’s paid.
The backside line is that the harmed policyholders ought to be capable of implement the legal guidelines designed to guard them as a result of these policyholders have probably the most motivation to implement the legal guidelines towards the wrongdoer insurance coverage firms. Taxpayers shouldn’t need to pay cash to help an pointless governmental entity to implement legal guidelines higher enforced by the folks with the monies at stake.
Thought For The Day
I don’t need to be a sellout.
—Dr. Disrespect
1 Barbato v. State Farm Florida Ins. Co., No 1:22-cv-22891 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 14, 2023).