Florida New Litigated Claims Fell 35% in August

New litigated claims for Florida’s largest property and casualty insurers dropped to 4,313 in August, a 35% decrease from July, according to data compiled by litigation management software provider CaseGlide.

The month-over-month drop is the largest percentage decline since September 2017, when a 51% m-o-m drop coincided with Hurricane Irma’s landfall in Florida.

Miami-Dade County accounted for 27% of new litigated claims, followed by Broward at 18% and Palm Beach at 7%.

CaseGlide monitors 17 of Florida’s largest insurers, seven of which experienced a greater than 40% drop, and an addition seven reported between a 20% and 39% drop. AOB cases as a percentage of total new litigated cases in the month were at 24%.

CaseGlide CEO Wesley Todd called the August figures a “shift back to the more normal pattern of declining litigated claims” during the early autumn months and said it’s too early to judge the impact of Senate Bill 76 on new litigated claims. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation in June and it went into effect July 1.

The bill includes changes to the state’s one-way attorney fee statue and adds new requirements and restrictions on roofing contractors. A section of the law restricting advertisements and solicitations of roofing contractors was halted by a federal judge in July.

“Florida Senate Bill 76 has undoubtedly contributed to some confusion in the marketplace and going forward we will be tracking Intent to Initiate Litigation Notices to better understand their effect on litigated cases in Florida,” Todd said.

According to CaseGlide, the top 10 AOB contractors in Florida represent 25% of all AOB-related new litigated claims.