Steve Ellis, the vice president of liability practices at the consulting firm Sedgwick, stated that trial attorneys have not fully adapted to tort reform measures implemented in Florida last year. Ellis shared his insights during a June 7 episode of the Sedgwick podcast titled “The latest in litigation.”
“I think we’re one year post-Florida tort reform, and I think we’re really not fully understanding the impact of Florida tort reform,” said Ellis. “I think the plaintiff’s bar hasn’t fully grasped all the changes and that the defense bar is still trying to understand what those changes are as well.”
According to Ellis, plaintiff’s attorneys continue to present medical evidence in the same manner as before the tort reform bill was enacted in 2023. However, following the bill’s implementation, attorneys can now only present (or board) the amount that the client’s insurance provider paid for medical expenses or 120% of the Medicare rate. Ellis said it is now up to the defense to compare the medicals boarded by the plaintiff’s attorney with the tort reform law’s requirements and determine if what was presented is accurate. In some cases, he said, “no, it’s not $150,000 in medicals like you sent me, it’s actually $30,000 in medicals.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the tort reform bill, HB 837, into law in March 2023. According to Marshall Dennehey, prior to this bill’s enactment, plaintiff’s attorneys could present the full monetary amount a client was charged for medical services without including any adjustments from insurance.
Tort reform measures enacted in Florida have helped reduce the number of “nuclear” verdicts—verdicts larger than $10 million—in the state. A report from Marathon Strategies indicated that from 2009 to 2022, Florida had the second-largest sum of nuclear verdicts out of any state in the country but dropped to seventh place in 2023 due to these reforms signed into law by DeSantis.
Nuclear verdicts impact the insurance industry by straining both availability and affordability of insurance coverage. The Insurance Journal reported that when jury awards increase significantly, insurers find it more challenging to underwrite those risks without raising premiums or reducing coverage limits.
Ellis has been with Sedgwick since June 2022 and previously spent seven years on the faculty of The University of Olivet and thirty years working for Liberty Mutual Insurance.
