Eric Adams, a partner in Shutts & Bowen LLP’s Tampa office, recently spoke with the Tampa Bay Business Journal regarding the recent flood of lawsuits putting a strain on Florida’s insurance industry, as carriers wrestle with skyrocketing costs.

The article discusses that despite a recent legislative overhaul expected to relieve the strain of excessive litigation on the property insurance marketplace, reforms will not retroactively apply to the more than 680,000 claims filed in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, resulting in carriers paying out billions and costly litigation. The reforms sparked a number of first-party lawsuits against carriers. According to Eric, the tidal wave of legal action continues to grow as the number of cases filed in March before the tort reform bill passed was 126% higher than the highest ever recorded in Florida.

As Eric explains, the state’s legal system suffers from “tort reform hangover.”

“I filed a lawsuit around the same time the statute passed in March and it took two and a half months to get a summons issued by the clerk's office because they were dealing with this huge influx of cases,” he said. “The system is in distress...It’s going to take some time before the tort reforms work their way through.”

To read the article in full, click here.

 

About Eric S. Adams

Eric S. Adams is a partner in the Tampa office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where he is a member of the Business Litigation Practice Group and the Construction Practice Group.  He is also Chair of the firm's E-Discovery Committee. A Martindale-Hubbell AV® rated commercial litigation attorney, Eric has been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America® and named by Florida Super Lawyers since 2008. His accounting experience helps him speak the language of his business clients. He focuses his practice on litigation involving business disputes, construction, trusts and estates, real estate, and intellectual property.