PIP repeal legislation advances through first Senate committee
R.J. Lehmann is the director of finance, insurance and trade policy at the think tank R Street Institute. He said they support the legislation despite concerns about switching to tort system could have unintended consequences. Under PIP, there’s a limit on filing lawsuits. With liability coverage, the driver who causes the accident is responsible for paying for the damages.
Lehmann said they support Lee’s bill because medical payments are optional, instead of mandated like in earlier versions of PIP repeal bills. But he also argues that Florida should consider limiting third-party lawsuits against insurers.
But the American Property Casualty Insurance Association opposes the legislation because of tort law concerns. Logan McFaddin, APCIA assistant vice president of state government relations, said it doesn’t contain critical fixes to stop the rampant abuse of Florida’s bad faith law.
“In 2017 alone, Florida’s broken tort system had a $6.6 billion impact on premium costs,” he said in a statement. “Without addressing much needed bad faith reforms, Senate Bill 378 does not protect consumers from rising costs or remedy the laws that have led to an overburdened court system.”
