Attorneys are required to cooperate with each other when conflicts and calendar changes are necessary and requested, according to the Florida Bar Association's Rule B4.
However, an email written by national personal injury firm Morgan and Morgan's chief operating officer Reuven Moskowitz, suggests plaintiff lawyers take a hostile position toward insurers' opposing counsel as a consequence of major tort reform.
“Good morning PI lawyers across the country! As we enter this new era, I want to make it unequivocally clear that we will not be giving an inch to carriers ever again,” the March 24 email states. “Not one inch. Specifically, as a matter of policy, we will not be granting any extensions of any sort moving forward for any reason. They can figure it out or file a motion. Under no circumstances will we agree to any continuances, discovery extensions, or requests to extend deadline to answer complaints. Red line rules.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB837 into law on March 24. The legislation cuts the statute of limitations for filing general negligence lawsuits in half, from four years to two years, raises the standard of proof for demonstrating that an insurer has acted in bad faith, adds more uniform standards for the calculation of medical damages in personal injury cases or wrongful death, does away with the one-way attorney fee statute and restricts the use of attorney fee multipliers in litigation.
“What's at stake is thousands of attorney jobs in Florida that the plaintiff's bar and the defense bar would rather stay in place," said Matthew Monson, an insurance defense attorney with more than a decade of experience. "In the future, hundreds upon hundreds of Florida lawyers will potentially leave their jobs because the plaintiffs will not have the same incentive to file suits without attorney’s fees."
When asked about the "not one-inch" email, Matt Morgan, Morgan & Morgan's managing attorney, walked back Moskowitz’s words in follow-up correspondence.
“It goes without saying that all attorneys and team members are required to follow the rules of professional conduct and civil procedure in their state to the letter of the rule/law,” Morgan wrote in his March 28 statement. “All lawyers in their individual states are to make the legal decisions as requests come to their attention within their own discretion. These decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. These decisions should be informed by our collective knowledge of the insurance industry's practices.
"As many of you know, the insurance industry makes at least half of its profits on the 'float.' Google it please if you have not heard of this before. What this means is carriers take the money they owe our clients and invest it in the markets instead of paying our clients timely. The longer the money stays in the markets, the more interest on the money they make. This is why insurance companies drag out our cases for as long as they can. Our clients need their money now to put their lives back together.
"Our clients hire us to recover the money owed to them as quickly as possible so they may move on with their lives. In my opinion, we should not be helping insurance companies profit by delaying justice for our clients at scale. But as stated above, every circumstance is unique and should be evaluated by each individual attorney in accordance with the rules of professional conduct and the rules of civil procedure in their state. Each decision should be guided by the one question which informs everything we do for the people at our firm across the country: 'What is in the best interests of my client?'"
Morgan and Morgan's caseload represents some 30 percent of the state's total, and the firm is Florida’s single biggest storm damage litigator.
On the eve of HB837's enactment, the plaintiff firm indicated it expected to file approximately 25,000 insurance claim cases before the law took effect.
Evidence that plaintiff attorneys rushed to file claims before the law was signed are becoming evident. According to the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, more than three-quarters of the civil cases filed from Jan. 1 to March 22 – two days before the bill was signed – were filed between March 17 and March 22.
More than 6,100 cases were filed on Friday, March 24, the date of the signing, while only 505 were filed on Monday, March 27, the data shows.