Attorney Find Blog

Mandatory automobile insurance laws became the norm in the 1950s, but that development was quickly followed by new complications:  clogged courtrooms, disparate awards for similar injuries, and delays in compensation for accident victims in need of timely medical care.  A handful of states thought they’d found the solution with no-fault insurance, and Florida was one of the first.  Florida’s PIP (personal injury protection) system took effect in 1972.

Now, that law is set to “sundown”, or automatically expire, if the legislature doesn’t act to renew it, and that renewal is strongly opposed by many who say the PIP system is too riddled with fraud to work effectively.  One fraud examiner indicated that 40% of his insurance fraud caseload sprung from PIP claims.  Lawmakers made an attempt at addressing the fraud issue in legislation passed last year, but Governor Jeb Bush vetoed the law, saying that it didn’t go far enough.

Some health officials have suggested that an end to PIP would create a crisis for the state’s public hospitals, which would provide the only treatment option for many uninsured accident victims without the no-fault coverage.   Consumers, like legislators, are divided, but it’s an issue that can’t be ignored.  Change is coming no later than October, when the existing law will pass out of force whether or not there is replacement legislation in place.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 9:57 am and is filed under Current Legal Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.