New Litigated Claims Rise 12% and Notices of Intent to Initiate Litigation are up 24% in March for Florida’s Largest P&C Insurers
Florida Litigation Management Data Trends, March 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.
March 2022 data from Florida’s largest P&C insurers shows the number of new litigated claims jumped 12% from February figures. After a brief dip in February, March’s figure of 4,551 is the 2nd highest number of new litigated cases (January 2022 – 4,595) since the sharp drop off after Senate Bill 76 took effect in July of 2021.
Of the 16 largest Florida insurers we regularly monitor, all but four showed a month-over-month increase in March. One insurer showed no change from February figures, and three showed declines between 5% and 14%. For those insurers who showed an increase, two were greater than 30% month-over-month, and five between 20%-30%.
For Notices of Intent to Initiate Litigation (NOIs) received by the same insurers, March figures reflected an increase of 484 or 12%, to 3,395, up from February’s total of 2,740. NOIs have increased monthly since July 2021 when data first became available. Combined new litigated cases and NOIs increased 17% month-over-month from January’s figures.
“The trend line for combined new litigation and Notices of Intent to Initiate Litigation has been on an upward trajectory since December,” said Wesley Todd, CEO of CaseGlide. “Add to that the increase in percentage of AOB, the highest we’ve recorded since mid-2019, and we continue to see cause for concern for the industry in Florida. We’re also monitoring closely the call for a proposed property insurance special session in the Florida legislature and will comment on that as the situation progresses.”
“The trend line for combined new litigation and Notices of Intent to Initiate Litigation has been on an upward trajectory since December. Add to that the increase in percentage of AOB, the highest we’ve recorded since mid-2019, and we continue to see cause for concern for the industry in Florida.”
AOB cases as a percentage of total new litigated cases in March increased to 37% from 34% in February. AOB percentage of total cases has not been higher than 37% since August of 2019 where it reached 44%.
Year to date, the top 10 AOB contractors in the state represent 31% of all AOB-related new litigated claims, with the top contractor responsible for 10%.
The percentage of litigated claims across Florida counties has remained mostly steady in March, with Miami-Dade County representing 25% of new litigated cases, Broward County following at 16%, Hillsborough County at 7%, Palm Beach County at 7%, and Orange County at 7%.
CaseGlide remains committed to observing this data closely, monitoring to see if these patterns persist and how the trends will impact insurers across Florida.