Dear Editor,
A lot of people cite regulation, taxation, and inflation as the biggest cost drivers for any small business, but there is another one at least in a small business leader’s mind that is also a major consideration: lawsuits.
Florida’s economy is cranking along just fine right now. Population growth continues to fuel a rising standard of living, and our reputation as the freedom state will continue to bring more people and more capital over the next several years. In 2023, Speaker Paul Renner and Governor DeSantis collaborated to pass a major lawsuit reform package, and that also has contributed immediately to the story of Florida’s prosperity.
This is why, first, we began to put some commonsense back into the process for assigning blame for accidents. It only follows that those who are truly are to blame should be liable while those who are not to blame should be held only proportionally harmless. Specifically, if the plaintiff himself is more than 50% at fault for his own accident, he has no basis to sue someone else. This doctrine has settled down the amount of frivolous lawsuits that have been filed because enterprising attorneys have stopped settlement shopping, looking for the big payout from anyone who might have even a small percentage of liability for an issue.
Another key part of the reform package of 2023 is that it moved the statute of limitation for a lawsuit from 4 years to 2 years. That definitely makes sense and has helped to reduce the amount of litigation and financing of litigation by small businesses for many years after an incident. It only logically follows that if someone has an accident, they should know within 2 years whether they are going to sue and not keep holding a small business hostage for a significant amount of time.
Now, Florida has been removed from the national judicial hellholes list, and even our insurance market is beginning to settle down due to these reforms. In fact, AM Best just released a report this week that said that Florida’s insurance market is back on track and is now becoming attractive for many insurance companies to come into the Florida market. That kind of competition is going to push rates down for everyone and keep Florida’s small businesses healthy by reducing a key cost-driver for their bottom lines.
Now that has begun to change with the lawsuit reform measures passed in 2023, but I and my friends are worried because the pressure is coming for the legislature to reverse some of their reforms, and it is my prayer that they do not do this. We also need to thank Governor DeSantis for vetoing the legislation that would have removed the prohibition on pain and suffering lawsuits for medical damages. Economic damages are still a permissible reason to sue, but opening them up to pain and suffering would have literally broken the bank.
Raymond Johnson
Jacksonville, FL
