Florida’s Bad-Faith Claims Reform Law Not Retroactive, Appeals Court Says
A Florida appeals court has re-affirmed a major state Supreme Court decision, helping to answer lingering questions about whether the 2022 bad-faith litigation reform law can be applied retroactively.
The answer is “no,” Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeals said this week in Cindy Vo vs. Scottsdale Insurance Co. Because Florida statute 624.1551, passed as part of major insurance law changes in 2022, made a substantive change to the law, it could not be applied to cases begun before the law took effect, as Scottsdale had argued, explained Josh Beck, an insurance defense attorney who was not involved in the case.