- April 15, 2024
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The movement to reform Florida's legal climate could generate some momentum in Tallahassee this upcoming Legislative session.
“Florida is one of the worst states in the nation for lawsuits,” Florida Chamber CEO Mark Wilson says in a statement. “In fact, Florida's 41st worst legal climate ranking puts our state in the bottom 10 in the nation - a reputation that does nothing to attract new businesses or give existing business owners the confidence they need to grow their business, make investments or increase their work force.”
In response to that predicament, the chamber, through its Coalition for Legal Reform, released a three-step reform plan during a recent Florida Senate Judiciary Committee civil litigation workshop. The steps include:
• The coalition recommends the Legislature consider adopting the Daubert expert evidence standard, which are the rules that oversee expert witness testimony. Federal courts and most state courts use the Daubert standard, which covers the relevance, reliability, and scientific methods of a potential witness. But Florida, according to the coalition, uses the Frye standard, which some in the legal community say is less rigorous than Daubert.
Mark Delegal, a Tallahassee-based attorney with Pennington PA, says the standards Florida uses make the state a negative outlier. “To have a good economic environment for businesses to expand and prosper,” Delegal says in the release, “it is vital that we modernize our legal climate to make it consistent and predictable for all.”
• The coalition then addressed the Fair Settlement Act, also called bad faith litigation. This is where some plaintiffs' attorneys, usually in insurance cases, allegedly circumvent the settlement process, says GrayRobinson attorney George Meros.
“Florida's worsening bad faith litigation environment leads to encouraging meritless claims, premiums rising, insurers leaving the state and leaving responsible consumers to ultimately foot the bill,” Meros says. “This is bad for consumers, bad for the business community and bad for our overall economic stability as a state.”
• Accuracy in damages is the third priority for the coalition. The problem there, the coalition says, is the process for deciding damages is rife with the potential to have businesses pay significantly more than the cost of legitimate medical care. One change the coalition seeks is to have the damages law include an option for a defendant to present valid evidence that treatment was not medically necessary.
Wilson, with the chamber, says these reforms are essential for Florida's business competitiveness. “We must stop importing litigation to Florida,” Wilson says, “and start growing and importing jobs.”
