car insurance

For the eighth year in a row, the Florida Legislature has considered but failed to make bodily injury (BI) insurance coverage mandatory for every owner or operator of a motor vehicle required to be registered in this state. The two bills proposed for this reason during the recently concluded legislative session failed to receive a committee hearing.

Florida and New Hampshire are the only two states in the Union that do not require all drivers to carry BI coverage.

What Florida does require is personal injury protection or PIP and property damage (PD) liability coverage in the amount of $10,000 because of damage or destruction to the property of others in a crash.

Three years ago, Florida’s Legislature passed a bipartisan bill that would have required BI coverage. Pressured by the insurance industry, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the bill. This year’s proposed bills addressed some of the concerns expressed by Gov. DeSantis when he vetoed the bill. Nevertheless, the insurance industry kept the bills from gaining traction.

In an effort to extract attorney’s fees and costs from an opponent, any party to a lawsuit may utilize Florida Statute 768.79. In cases involving substantial amounts of litigation, the award under the statute can be sizable, even in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. For this reason, the statute is also a powerful mechanism for effectuating settlements.

If the award is against an insured defendant, who pays, the defendant or the insurance company?

Florida’s Insurance Code requires policies sold in Florida to provide various types of coverage. For example, motor vehicle policies must include personal injury protection (PIP). However, the Code does not require liability insurance policies to maintain coverage for 768.79 awards.

Articles Tagged with car insurance

Jeffrey P. Gale, P.A. // Florida Fails Again at Mandating Bodily Injury Insurance Coverage

Jeffrey P. Gale, P.A. // Who Pays Attorney’s Fees and Costs Assessed Against Defendant Under Proposal for Settlement?