Trial lawyers nearly destroyed Florida's housing market.
Ron DeSantis signed two reforms that stopped them – and a new state analysis just put a dollar amount on what he saved Floridians.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation ran the numbers and the gap is staggering.
The $2,600 Gap Lawyers Would Have Taken From Your Wallet
Without the reforms DeSantis pushed through in 2022 and 2023, the average Florida homeowner's insurance bill was on track to hit $6,348 by next year.
With the reforms, the projected average is $3,682.
That's a $2,666 difference – per household – per year.
The OIR analysis looked at HO-3 policies, the standard coverage for single-family homes, among Florida's 10 largest insurers.
And it reveals something the media never told you: Florida's insurance crisis wasn't caused by hurricanes.
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It was caused by lawyers.
For two decades, plaintiff's attorneys and shady contractors ran a scheme called assignment of benefits fraud.
A contractor would knock on your door after a water leak or roof issue, ask you to sign over your insurance rights, inflate the repair estimate by three times the actual cost, then sue your insurer when the claim got disputed.
Florida's "one-way attorney fee" law made this irresistible – if the lawyer won, the insurer paid his fees; if the insurer won, nobody paid the lawyer's fees.
So lawyers filed anyway.
AOB lawsuits jumped from roughly 1,300 in 2000 to 135,000 by 2018 – a rise the Insurance Information Institute called a "full-blown Florida insurance crisis."
Insurers hemorrhaged money, raised rates, and fled the state.
By 2022, Citizens Property Insurance – the state's insurer of last resort, the one created for people who literally couldn't get coverage anywhere else – had become Florida's largest homeowner insurer with 1.42 million policies.
That's the definition of a broken market.
What DeSantis Actually Did
The December 2022 reform eliminated Florida's one-way attorney fee statute for insurance lawsuits.
It eliminated assignment of benefits contracts for property insurance claims entirely.
The 2023 follow-up legislation added regulatory teeth and accelerated the depopulation of Citizens.
The trial lawyers screamed.
Consumer advocates warned it would hurt homeowners.
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The media ran their quotes.
Here's what actually happened.
Litigation against the state's top insurers dropped 13.2% between 2022 and 2023.
Lawsuits against Universal Property & Casualty – one of the most heavily litigated insurers in the state – fell 46.8% in a single year.
Twenty new insurance companies entered Florida's market, bringing over $850 million in fresh capital.
Florida homeowners paid nearly $3 billion less for coverage in 2025 than the year before – the first statewide premium decrease since 2009.
Citizens' policy count had collapsed to 266,000 by August 2026 – down 81% from that peak.
Citizens' own board approved an average 8.8% rate decrease for 2026 homeowners policies – the first rate cut since 2015.
The expected annual cost trend among Florida's 10 largest insurers fell from 8.6% before the reforms to negative 0.1% in recent filings.
The Story the Left Doesn't Want You to Understand
Your insurance bill might still feel high.
That's real, and there's a legitimate reason for it.
When the cost to rebuild your house doubles – and it has, between lumber, labor shortages, and supply chain carnage from the Biden years – your required coverage amount goes up even if the rate per dollar stays flat.
The state-backed insurer of last resort was on the verge of collapse three years ago.
Now it's cutting rates, shedding policies, and watching private carriers fight each other for Florida business.
That is a complete reversal.
Democrats didn't do this.
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Trial lawyers fought against this.
The media ignored this.
DeSantis – with Florida Republicans – forced it through while everyone in Washington, DC was busy calling him extreme.
In 2023, analysts projected Florida's average premium would hit $6,000.
It came in at $3,340.
Without the reforms, the OIR now projects that number climbing to $6,348 by next year.
With them, it's heading to $3,682.
That's not a policy debate.
That's $2,666 a year staying in your pocket instead of funding someone else's lawsuit.
Sources:
- Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, OIR Analysis of HO-3 Premium Projections, Florida's Voice, September 22, 2026.
- Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, "Citizens Recommends Rate Cuts for Most Policyholders," Citizens Press Release, December 10, 2025.
- American Property Casualty Insurance Association, "Florida's Legal Reforms: Lower Insurance Costs and Less Litigation," Moore Actuarial Consulting, September 4, 2025.
- Insurance Information Institute, "Home Insurance in Florida – Premium Reform Analysis," Triple-I Issues Brief, 2024.
- Insurance Information Institute, "New Study: Assignment of Benefits Fraud Costing Consumers Billions," December 12, 2018.
