Bad Faith Reform Stalls
The effort to reform Florida’s “bad faith” law hit a roadblock in the House of Representative that might signal its demise for this year. The House Civil Justice Subcommittee narrowly defeated HB 427 by an 8-7 vote. The bill would extend the provisions of Section 624.155, Florida Statutes, to common law bad faith claims in addition to statutory claims. The bill also would allow an insurer to cure an alleged violation by tendering the amount demanded or the policy limits. Business groups supported the proposal, while the plaintiffs’ bar opposed it.
The unfavorable committee vote doesn’t kill the bill– under House procedures, the bill could be called up in the committee again. However, the vote certainly signifies that the proposal is a long way from passing. The Senate counterpart (SB 1224) has been referred to three committees but has not yet been taken up by any of them.