Opinion: Lawsuit Reforms Must Continue

Florida has made progress in leaps and bounds over the past few years in one important area: lawsuit abuse reform. For many years, our state was rated a judicial hellhole because the costs of litigation were so high, which spilled over into the regular economy and affected all Floridians, even those not directly involved in any particular lawsuit. These costs could actually be quantified and were as high as $1500 per year per Florida family.

But something truly significant happened a few years ago, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law landmark legislation to update our legal system, reforming contingency fees, standards of bad faith, premises liability, and a host of other related issues. The end result is a state with a fairer judicial system that rewards those with actual damages instead of cultivating an environment where filing lawsuits is an industry to itself.

Unfortunately, those who liked the old system are now trying to turn back the clock and push us back to being a judicial hellhole. They would overturn the 2023 reforms and are actively opposing other good measures.

For instance, they are fighting a new common sense bill that would require plaintiffs to disclose if their lawsuit is being financed by a third party. This unseemly practice is popping up all over the country, where investors are looking at lawsuits as a new way to make money and providing the equivalent of venture capital. Other states are passing laws to address this issue, and it’s one of the remaining areas where Florida remains vulnerable to lawsuit abuse.

And there’s more at stake than simple fairness. Some of the major third party investors are foreign, with a lot of activity from China in American lawsuits. These investors often have the power to make decisions about the case, rendering the actual plaintiff as just a puppet in the pursuit of big judgments against American companies. The proposed Florida law would make this sort of activity illegal.

Now is the time to double down on our commitment to a fair and free Florida. No rollbacks to effective lawsuit reforms! And let’s pursue these other new measures, like reforming third party financing, that will create more opportunity and prosperity for all Florida residents.

John C. Kramner, Tallahassee, FL