Jesse Scheckner
A huge share of Florida voters remains happy with tort reform laws the Legislature enacted, and a plurality want more restrictions against “lawsuit abuse” added, new Florida Chamber of Commerce polling found.
Bills passed in 2023 blocked policyholders who successfully sue their insurers from recouping attorneys fees and banned assignment of benefits in auto glass claims.
Those and other measures went “a long way to undo Florida’s reputation as a litigious hotspot,” the Washington-based Consumer Choice Center said in March.
The Florida Chamber poll found that only 15% of voters in the state believe the past tort legislation went too far, and more voters than not support additional measures.
Working on behalf of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Tallahassee-based Cherry Communications spoke with 605 likely voters by phone May 2-10.
The sample size included 264 Republicans, 218 Democrats and 123 third- and no-party residents. The poll had a 4-percentage-point margin of error.
Seventy-five percent of Florida voters, the poll found, believe that personal injury trial lawyers who advertise on billboards and television are more interested in making money than protecting people’s rights. That includes 84% of Republicans and 71% of third- and no-party voters.
Just 10% of those polled say the contrary.
Notably, the Florida Chamber backed the 2023 tort reform measures and fought others to reverse them or give plaintiffs more even ground in court. It was among the organizations to oppose a bill lawmakers approved this month to repeal a law derisively called “free kill,” which today prohibits adult children and parents older than 25 from collecting noneconomic damages — pain and suffering — for wrongful deaths involving medical malpractice.
Florida enacted the law in 1990 and remains the only state with the restriction, which Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he has every intention of keeping on the books.
