By: James D. Underwood, Esq. & Christopher M. Tuccitto, Esq.

The recently enacted and so-called Tort “Reform” law has something bad about it for everyone that will impact medical providers, attorneys, and consumer/claimants alike. Key components of the law include the elimination of attorney client privilege related to any referrals to medical providers by an attorney to their client, the elimination of attorney’s fees from insurers when an insured or their assignee recovers in litigation including all types of claims whether medical, vehicle damage, or even life insurance coverage. Additionally, the legislation eliminates the ability of an individual from recovering damages for injuries from an at fault party if the individual was more than fifty percent at fault for the injuries, provides for additional burdens to bring a bad faith claim against an insurer, and limits the evidence that may be presented to prove the amount of past, current, and future medical expenses related to injuries.

The legislation limits Florida consumers access to courts as it eliminates the ability of first party claimants from having their attorney’s fees covered by their insurer when they recovery wrongfully denied benefits under their policy of insurance. In the past when you were forced to sue your own insurance company or when an assignee sued the responsible insurer for wrongfully denied benefits insurers were required by Florida Statute 627.428 to pay the reasonable attorney’s fees and costs for the necessity of the litigation. This law eliminates this statutory provision and likely will impact all policies of insurance written in Florida after the effective date of the legislation which was March 24, 2023. This elimination of the recovery of attorney’s fees will impact PIP cases, vehicle damage cases, life insurance policy suits, and all suits related to first party insurance claims. Now, claimants will need to compensate their legal representation from their recovery. Many claims that could have been pursued against an insurer in the past will no longer be financially viable as the recovery will be used primarily to satisfy legal representation even if the insurer wrongfully denied payments.

The law changes the evidence that may be used to prove damages as it relates to injuries from charges for incurred medical care to the exact amount already reimbursed by applicable insurance but does allow for any evidence of reasonable amounts billed to the claimant for medically necessary treatment and services. As to future medical expenses, the bill limits the evidence used to prove the amount to what a responsible insurer would pay for those future services, but it also allows for any evidence of reasonable future amount to be billed to the claimant for medically necessary treatment or services. These changes will lower the amount of recovery for claimants across the board, impacting the monies available to cover outstanding medical expenses.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the insurance companies handle claims now that the threat of exposure to the claimant/insured for attorney’s fees and costs has been eliminated. For insurance like PIP, which only provides up to $10,000 in coverage, it’s easy to see many scenarios where the insurance companies nickel and dime the medical providers at every opportunity, knowing that it will be economically unfeasible for an attorney to handle a claim against them for a percentage of what amounts to a relatively small amount in dispute.

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Finally, the long-awaited 18 wheeler accident book has updated and reviewed. It was made available to the public because of the frequent accidents these wheelers have been involved in. For clarification sake, 18 wheelers are big trucks just like the usual truck; they mostly use the highways near Brownsville-Texas and have been responsible for much damage which includes; the cars, properties, and human injuries or death on the road. The content was released is due to the approaching summer season, which is usually accompanied by traffic jams. During this time, accidents are inevitable. As a result, there have been calls for lawyers specialized in accident cases involving 18 wheelers.

Over time, accidents involving trucks and cars have been fatal, but victims are not aware of the need for lawyers who are well articulated about injury cases to help them in getting compensation. 18 wheeler truck accidents have been rampant on the highway of Cameron County and Rio Grande Valley area which has been of concern. Due to this, lawyers took it upon themselves to update the book on accident and state clearly what is needed to be done when an accident involving an 18 wheeler occurs.

This new book enlightens the public on how to go about getting lawyers who can argue cases on the 18 wheelers in areas like Cameron County, Texas, Brownsville, South Padre Island, and Los Indios where these accidents constantly happen. It also informs the public on steps to take, the procedures, and what is needed from the victim by the lawyer in order to get compensation in the court in an event of 18 wheeler accidents. With the release of this book, 18 wheelers trucks are no longer termed as small accidents; it has now been regarded as a serious case by the judiciary because of its frequency in occurrence.

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The world will forever remember the COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed a lot of lives and brought almost all the activities to a standstill. The judiciary is, however, not an exemption especially in Cook County. After a lengthy lay-off, court activities are set to resume again even though so many cases aren’t available for hearing in about a year now or more, some lawyers have criticized the situation saying it could have been prevented.

A lawyer stated that the situation cannot be termed as “slow-motion or no motion” because he believes it is a serious problem. The lawyers who had pending cases for months finally got notification of the hearing of their cases, some of whom spans till 2021 and have blamed the system for negligence of duty and piling up hearings which hold the fate of many in ransom. They cited the unavailability of WI-FI and video conference as a cause of the delay, the availability of which could have solved this situation even the pandemic showed the lapse and need to get it. Those in-charge showed little concern and didn’t pay attention to it and the chief judge has been made the scapegoat in their accusation and has been labeled as incompetent.

As a result of the situation, one of the lawyers labeled the insurance companies as the victor in the case due to the complicated offers they have been making because of job loss during the pandemic. They have been trying to reach the chief judge to do something about the situation. While taking cognizance of the fact that, lawyers are doing a great job for the court hearing to proceed, their effort is however being frustrated by the clerks of Lake Counties and Kane for not giving them feedback as to how they have managed to keep court hearing going in their counties. It is highly commendable that hearings have been on-going in these two counties, despite the pandemic which is due to the effective job of the clerks.

However, Cook County judge has responded that the pandemic has made it impossible for them to proceed and that the judges are not in any way responsible for the delay in hearing. According to her, these judges have been working tirelessly to ensure that court hearings resume and she can’t be more proud of their effort, despite the pandemic. The chief judge said the lawyers criticizing didn’t see what is happening on the inside because they are outside, however, going by the years of experience so far, the judges are working harder than before.

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