Tort-reform proponents are warning that increasing support among populist Republicans for legislation that encourages the filing of private lawsuits will create a drag on state economies, including Florida’s.
Republican lawmakers in the Sunshine State have recently advanced legislation creating new individual rights that would be enforced by private citizens suing for damages. Among the bills they’ve spearheaded is a data privacy bill, HB 9, which gives consumers the power to file lawsuits against businesses that they say mishandled their personal data. The bill would allow consumers to claim up to $750 per violation.
And Senate Bill 620 creates a new cause of action for businesses. Under its provisions, the bill would allow a business to file suit against a city or county that passed an ordinance which caused the business to sustain a 15% profit loss. The bill is now on the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Traditionally, Republicans have favored tort reforms that reduce or discourage the filing of civil lawsuits, arguing that damages awards amount to a tax on businesses and a drag on economic activity. But that has changed in recent years. In Congress, Democrats and Republicans were found to be equally likely to support bills enforceable by private litigation between the years 2015 and 2018, according to a 2021 study by Stephen Burbank of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Sean Farhang of the University of California, Berkeley.
“We’ve seen a national trend of populist-type Republican lawmakers pushing liability-expanding laws in various policy areas, and Florida legislators are no exception,” Bailey Aragon, spokeswoman for the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), told the Florida Record. “Creating new outlets for civil lawsuits fails to solve any real problems or protect consumers. The only beneficiaries are entrepreneurial trial lawyers who can generate additional fees by jumping on the latest lawsuit bandwagon.”
In Florida, civil lawsuit abuse results in a “tort tax” on every resident of $812.52, according to a 2021 study by the Texas-based Perryman Group. In turn, the state’s legal climate is burdened with $34.7 billion in excessive tort costs, leading to the loss of almost 175,000 jobs, according to the study.
“Trial lawyers spend more money on advertising in Florida than in any other state – all to promote more litigation,” Aragon said.
Tort-reform supporters argue that a large share of such civil damages awards to to attorney fees, with little going to consumers claiming they’ve been harmed.
“Expanding liability in the Sunshine State only helps lawyers, not hardworking Florida families,” Aragon said.