Alan Fiedel Partner

The Florida Supreme Court has refused to sign off on a proposed ballot title and summary, defeating an effort to place a question on the ballot next year that would permit “adults 21 years or older to possess, use, purchase, display, and transport up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and marijuana accessories for personal use for any reason,” as well as allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to sell it.

A proposed Florida bill highlights the inherent conflict between the rights of the individual to accept and undergo treatment for legitimate medical conditions in contradiction to employers’ desire to have a “drug-free” working environment in order to maintain certain standards of work quality and safety.

Effective January 1, 2015, a new law in Florida takes a step in the right direction by modifying the state’s child safety restraint seat laws and providing for $60 fines and three points on the driver's licenses of offenders. Parents and caregivers should be aware that the law is the minimum requirement that must be followed.

In a recent case, the Florida Supreme Court applied the “made whole doctrine” standard contract law to favor the insured over the insurer. However, if a policy contains a provision spelling out how any subrogation recovery obtained from a third party will be shared between an insurer and its policyholder, the terms of the insurance contract should prevail.

This new Florida statute provides the conditions under which a design professional may not be held individually liable for damages resulting from negligence under a professional services contract. The protection under this statute does not apply to lawsuits by third parties against the individual design professional and does not cover claims for personal injuries against the design professional. 

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s judgment denying an insurer’s motion for summary judgment on no duty to defend or indemnify its insured in connection with hurricane repair work, and granting in part and denying in part a cross-motion for summary judgment filed by plaintiff. The insurer was estopped from denying coverage because the insurer failed to adequately comply with the procedures set forth in Fla. Stat. § 627.426.

The Florida Supreme Court recently concluded that there is no common law first-party bad faith action in Florida and that the “implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing” does not exist as a separate claim from a statutory bad faith claim in the first-party insurance claims in Florida.

The Florida Senate banking and insurance committee passed a broad property insurance bill, ss. 627.706-627.7074, F.S., in February 2011 that would no longer require companies to offer comprehensive sinkhole insurance to Floridians. Coverage would be required only for “catastrophic ground collapse,” which means that a house is literally sucked into the ground. Proponents felt the bill would help reduce the rampant fraud that causes insurance companies to raise rates on consumers. But opponents saw it as the end of sinkhole insurance in Florida.

On Thursday, June 23, 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law the heavily debated Senate Bill 142. The new law is retroactive, meaning it applies to pending cases.

Both houses of the Florida Legislature have passed a bill that would allow defendants in "enhanced injury" product liability cases to present evidence relating to the fault of anyone whose negligence may have contributed to an underlying accident. Governor Rick Scott is expected to sign the bill into law.

A bill pending in the Florida Legislature could change the litigation landscape in product liability cases where the "crashworthiness" of a motor vehicle is involved.

Florida third party claimants may bring common law bad faith actions against insurers under limited circumstances, including the rendering of an excess judgment against an insured or by assignment.  In a case recently determined by the Florida Supreme Court, Pamela Perera v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, No. SC08-1968, the court, in essence, found that bad faith does not exist in a vacuum—that without the causation of damages, a carrier's alleged bad faith conduct is not actionable.

Parties, but not their attorneys, could be spared sanctions for frivolous litigation if they do not understand their cases were baseless under House Bill 449, which cleared the Florida House of Representatives Civil Justice and Court Committee in January 2010.

Whereas domestic insurers are regulated by Chapter 627 of the Florida Statutes, it was assumed that this chapter did not apply to surplus line insurers.  Following two 2008 court rulings in Florida, which created an ambiguity as to how many surplus lines insurers are regulated in contrast to domestic insurers, the Florida Legislature passed House Bill 853 during the 2009 Legislative Session, which was signed into law by Governor Charlie Crist on June 11, 2009.