Not too long ago, the American Tort Reform Affiliation launched its 2025-26 Judicial Hellholes® report, which was a sobering reminder of how rapidly states can slide into authorized chaos when lawsuit abuse is allowed to flourish. For Florida, the report ought to function each a warning and a wake-up name.
After years of hard-fought progress to flee the grip of a damaged civil justice system, the Sunshine State now faces renewed strain from the trial-lawyer foyer to reverse course.
With the 2026 legislative session approaching, the query is not theoretical: will Florida defend the reforms that restored steadiness and affordability, or will it danger tumbling again towards the very “Judicial Hellhole” standing it labored so arduous to depart behind?
The trial-lawyer foyer, empowered and emboldened by the state’s deep-pocketed billboard attorneys, has considerably tightened its grip on Home management. Their agenda is unmistakable: dismantle the successes of the 2022 and 2023 tort reforms, revive the litigation mills that after plagued our courts, and restore the revenue pipeline that is dependent upon manufacturing and inspiring lawsuits at each flip.
Let’s be trustworthy about how this trade works. Billboard attorneys don’t thrive when disputes are resolved rapidly, pretty, or inexpensively. Billboard attorneys thrive when lawsuits are plentiful, slow-moving, and costly, whatever the affect on shoppers or taxpayers. Their mannequin hinges on a system that’s complicit with manufactured claims, inflated damages, and procedural gamesmanship. In an ideal world for the trial bar, the courts function, not as a discussion board for justice, however as a revenue heart. When that system is left unchecked, the result’s larger prices for households, larger premiums for small companies, and a authorized local weather the place accountability is an afterthought.
If Home management chooses to serve the trial lawyer foyer relatively than the folks of Florida, the implications might be extreme. Reinstating inflated medical damages, reviving one-way attorney-fee statutes, increasing legal responsibility in opposition to native governments, and reopening the floodgates for insurance coverage litigation will drive premiums larger, shrink insurer participation in our market, burden small companies, and clog our courts with manufactured claims.
Fortunately, Governor DeSantis and the Florida Senate have remained the final traces of protection in opposition to this surge of self-interest masquerading as progressive coverage. Their continued resolve will decide whether or not our elected officers want to defend its residents or capitulate to the grasping calls for of a lawsuit machine. Florida doesn’t must relearn arduous classes it has already lived. The state’s current progress must be protected, not unraveled.
Because the Legislature and Floridians look to the 2026 session, lawmakers ought to keep in mind who bears the true price of those choices and guarantee Florida’s courts serve the general public curiosity, not the lawsuit trade.
Tom Gaitens, Government Director, Florida Residents Towards Lawsuit Abuse (FL-CALA)
