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YOU COULD LOSE YOUR PROPERTY INSURANCE CLAIM BEFORE YOU EVER EVEN HAVE ONE. FLORIDA SUPREME COURT TAKES UP CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE OF CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE ARBITRATION SYSTEM.
I recently spoke with WPTV about the Florida Supreme Court’s review of whether Citizens’ mandatory DOAH arbitration endorsement is constitutional. This is going to be a landmark decision one way or another.
According to WPTV, a review of one year of Citizens final hearing decision found the Administrative Judges with DOAH ruled in Citizens’ favor in 99% of the cases examined. They also found that Citizens pays the Judges up to $250,000.00 a year.
What does this mean? Well, if the Florida Supreme Court determines the DOAH provision to be constitutional, then there is the potential that DOAH will be expanded to all insurance carriers in the State of Florida.
In fact, in February of 2025, State Rep. Randy Maggard (R) proposed HB 1087 which would have mandated that all property insurance claims be resolved through DOAH. Luckily for Florida homeowners that bill died in the Insurance & Banking Subcommittee in June of 2025. Companion bill SB 1508 was proposed by State Sen. Thomas J. Leek which also died in the Insurance & Banking Subcommittee in June.
The question we should all be asking now is: if Citizens gets the “green light” from the Supreme Court, does DOAH expand to all the other insurance companies in the State of Florida?
Statistically, by implementing DOAH, insurance carriers would be guaranteeing themselves 99% victory rates over their insureds. What does this mean? Essentially, this would lead to several negative outcomes for Florida property owners who are already feeling the ill effects of the “reform” in property insurance laws from 2022.
If this law could extend to all insurance carriers, you could see legitimate claims never getting reported for fear of having to expend time, cost, and energy for an uncertain and overwhelmingly insurance-leaning result. Not to mention the fear of having to pay the insurance carrier potential legal fees when you are not one of the lucky 1% of successful outcomes. It could also lead to an inability to challenge any improperly denied claims. Even more concerning is Citizens isn’t even letting people withdraw their claims from DOAH.
On the flipside, if the Court strikes down Citizens’ arbitration program, it could also raise new issues for policyholders who have already gone through this this process, lost, and owe Attorney’s fees to Citizens.
While the Supreme Court hasn’t stated when they will rule on this matter, we will keep you updated as soon as the decision is reached. Only time will tell what’s in store for Florida’s insurance market, but based on precedent legislature and court rulings, how much time do we have left?
