A record number of civil cases – 280,122 – were filed in Florida courts in March during the runup to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to sign a comprehensive tort-reform measure, according to a new tally of civil lawsuits.
The number of cases filed on the Florida’s Courts E-Filing Portal last month represented a 126.9% increase over the previous record, according to a report provided to the Florida Record by portal program manager Carolyn Weber. The previous monthly record was a high of 123,476 cases, Weber reported.
The highest daily volume of emailed document submissions last month occurred on March 21, when the portal recorded 133,580 submissions. That was the highest number of submissions since the portal came online about a decade ago. DeSantis signed the tort-reform bill, HB 837, the following Friday, March 24.
So far, court officials have not taken any specific new actions to ensure the cases would be handled in a timely manner.
“Chief Justice (Carlos) Muñiz, chief judges in jurisdictions around the state and court administrative leadership continue to actively monitor caseload management, as they do as a matter of course, including taking note of the temporary increase in civil filings,” Paul Flemming, spokesman for the Florida Supreme Court, said in an email to the Record. “The chief justice has not taken any action.”
The Florida Justice Association, a group representing plaintiffs’ attorneys that opposed HB 837, said the surge in filings in March could have been avoided if lawmakers had crafted the legislation differently. The bill could have been written to apply only to cases “accruing” after the bill took effect – that is, applying the bill only to liability cases in which the circumstances occur after it was signed into law.
“The recent surge in personal-injury and wrongful-death case filings is the unfortunate result of HB 837 being rushed through the Legislature without sufficient consideration of its practical effects,” Curry Pajcic, the association president, said in a prepared statement. “In the few weeks that the bill was considered, it was evident to all that this language would cause a rush to file. Victims needed to file before the law took effect to preserve their rights.”
Florida circuit courts should manage these added cases in a way that’s in the best interest of all parties, Pajcic said.
HB 837 eliminates the use of attorney-fee multipliers in most civil actions, reduces the statute of limitations for negligence lawsuits, raises standards for so-called bad-faith actions against insurers and changes the way medical expenses are calculated for certain civil lawsuits.
The bill’s supporters say the provisions were needed to reform the state’s legal climate, which they alleged has been imposing rising costs on consumers and businesses alike.