New Litigated Claims Jump 37% in January for Florida's Largest P&C Insurers
Florida Litigation Management Data Trends, January 2022
As the industry’s leading claims litigation management software provider, CaseGlide compiles a broad swath of claims data that represents a variety of segments and geographies. One of the most interesting data sets that we regularly gather and analyze are litigated claims specific to the majority of Florida’s largest P&C insurance organizations.
January data from Florida’s largest P&C insurers shows the number of new litigated claims rose 37% from December 2021 figures. January’s figure of 4,595 new litigated claims represents the first significant increase since an almost steady five-month decline from July 2021’s high of 6,663.
Of the 17 largest Florida insurers we regularly monitor, all but one showed a month-over-month increase in January. Five insurers registered greater than 40% month-over-month increases, and only two showed a less than 20% increase. One insurer showed a decline of 16% month-over-month.
“Although actual lawsuit volumes have decreased since Senate Bill 76 (SB76) became effective, Florida insurers’ litigation exposure is still concerning,” said Wesley Todd, CEO of CaseGlide. “January’s steep increase could be the result of a return to normalcy following the holidays, or it could be that claims are now flowing through SB76’s new process and into litigation. It bears mentioning that these numbers alone likely aren’t enough to assess the state of the market.”
“Before initiating litigation, SB76 requires plaintiff’s attorneys to file pre-litigation notices. Should the notices be added to the lawsuits when calculating the total litigation? Based on our analysis, we think yes, for now. If you consider the total pre-suit notices and lawsuits, insurers may unfortunately still have a similar total exposure to what they had in 2020 when the legislature first started considering SB76,” Todd added.
AOB cases as a percentage of total new litigated cases in January dropped slightly to 31% from 33% in December. For the second month in a row, AOB represents over 30% of new litigation and has been on the rise steadily from the low 17% to 20% figures registered in the first six months of 2021.
The top 10 AOB contractors in the state represent 35% of all AOB-related new litigated claims, with the top contractor responsible for 12%.
Similar to the prior six months’ results, geographic distribution of new litigated claims remains mostly unchanged. Miami-Dade County represents 23% of new litigated cases, with Broward County following at 17%, Hillsborough County at 7%, Palm Beach County at 6%, and Orange County at 6%.
“It’s still too early to tell if SB76 will lead to decreased litigation frequency and severity,”
“It’s still too early to tell if SB76 will lead to decreased litigation frequency and severity,” Todd said. “Everyone is investing a lot into the new process to create a better insurance environment for all Floridians. As the data continues to develop, we will get a clearer picture.”
CaseGlide remains committed to observing this data closely, monitoring to see if these patterns persist and how the trends will impact insurers across Florida.