Tom Gaitens, executive director of the Florida chapter of the nonprofit Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA), stated in an April 30 op-ed that "civil lawsuit abuse" continues to negatively impact Florida's economy and taxpayers.
"Florida has lost more than 200,000 jobs and more than 23 billion as a result of the trial lobby abuses which go unaddressed year after year," said Gaitens. "This cost reduces revenue to both local and state government by more than 1 billion each. Civil lawsuit abuse is not a victimless impact, it robs every Floridian and reduces revenues to our state and local government."
According to the same article, Gaitens asserted that high rates in Florida’s insurance markets have been driven by trial attorneys who file "frivolous" lawsuits. He argued that a high volume of meritless lawsuits is clogging Florida’s court system, delaying justice in legitimate cases, and costing local and state governments money. The costs imposed by these excessive lawsuits are ultimately passed onto Florida’s taxpayers, who pay a "tort tax" of $1,056 each year. Gaitens urged lawmakers to address lawsuit abuse in the interest of protecting Floridians.
A report from Marathon Strategies indicated that tort reform measures enacted in Florida have helped reduce the number of "nuclear" verdicts, or verdicts larger than $10 million, in the state. From 2009 to 2022, Florida had the second largest sum of nuclear verdicts out of any state in the country, but it dropped to seventh place in 2023 thanks to tort reform measures signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
According to a press release, DeSantis signed HB 837 into law last year with the aim of improving the state’s insurance market. The legislation enacted reform measures designed to decrease excessive litigation that was causing insurance costs to rise, such as eliminating attorneys’ fee multipliers and establishing uniform standards to assist juries in calculating accurate medical damages.
The Insurance Information Institute (III) said that excessive lawsuits and outsized jury verdicts cause insurance costs to increase for all policyholders by forcing businesses and insurers to raise their costs to account for the heightened cost of risk. The III added that Florida’s reform measures have begun to benefit the state’s insurance market, with multiple new insurance providers coming to Florida.
In addition to his role at Florida CALA, Gaitens co-owns the Sarasota-based McDaniel Trading, according to CALA’s website. He has previously been a board member of the Florida Taxpayers Union, James Madison Institute-Tampa Regional, The Boys and Girls Club of Riverview. He also previously served as State Director of FreedomWorks.org.