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'Just Wait Until the Next Hurricane': Florida's New Insurance Law is Conjuring a Storm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hurricane season is here, Florida's next big storm is just a matter of time and a new assignment of benefits law spells a major wind change for homeowners, contractors and insurance companies. What will it look like?

Every time Santa Rosa Beach restoration contractor Ken Larsen submits a request for payment, he braces himself. It’s always a fight, Larsen says, that rumbles for weeks, months, years, catapulting between 40% and 80% of his annual earnings into limbo. And now, a new law passed in Florida on May 23 might make things even tougher for Larsen by threatening what legal power he had to demand payment.

On one hand, vendors like Larsen, and plaintiffs lawyers worry it will tip the scale against homeowners. But on the other hand are supporters who say the state was due for an overhaul as ballooning litigation raised insurance rates. Among them: Tallahassee lawyer Michael Carlson, who says a group of unscrupulous contractors have abused the system by submitting inflated claims, then suing under a Florida law that guarantees them legal fees if they prevail.

 

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