Judge Blocks Part Of PIP Insurance Law

March 21, 2013

A Tallahassee circuit court judge has, at least temporarily, blocked part of a law passed last year that sought to reduce fraud in the personal injury protection auto insurance system with a scathing critique of the no-fault law, saying it doesn’t give people access to the courts when they’re wronged.

Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis noted that no-fault law is a trade-off of access to a court remedy for wrongs for “a reasonable alternative” to a right to sue that speeds up payments for injury claims and lost wages, and some immunity from being held liable for others’ losses. But in the 40 years that Florida has used no-fault insurance, which Lewis likened to a “socialist” scheme depriving individuals of their rights, new restrictions have come into play that have forced reviews of whether they go over the line in denying people access to legal remedies to injuries.

In the case of the new restrictions on claims under the PIP law, Lewis said it appears they might. In light of the new law’s restrictions on the ability to be covered for certain treatments and other limits, the question arises, “is the no-fault law still a good deal?” Lewis wrote. “Is it still a reasonable alternative to the rights guaranteed to citizens under … the Florida State Constitution.?

“The answer to those questions is probably, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder, and reasonable people may disagree. From my perspective, however, the revisions to the law make it no longer the ‘reasonable alternative’” earlier courts had okayed,” Lewis wrote in a short order granting a temporary injunction.

Lewis prohibited the enforcement of only those sections of the law requiring a finding of emergency medical condition as a prerequisite for full payment of PIP benefits, or the sections that bar payment of benefits provided by chiropractors, massage therapists and acupuncturists, who had challenged the new law. The PIP law, passed last year in HB 119, limited covered medical care to $2,500, instead of the usual $10,000, if the injured claimant can’t show an emergency medical condition.

The Legislature created the no-fault car insurance system in 1971, a move, Lewis wrote, that not only took away people’s right to sue, but relieved “the wrongdoer of responsibility for his conduct, and granting him immunity from civil liability.” He called the system an example of an “experiment with socialism and the trend away from those libertarian principles of individual liberty and personal responsibility.”

Backers of the new law had said for years that the PIP system was rife with fraud, with fly-by-night providers billing for un-needed, or phantom “medical care.” Gov. Rick Scott had made passage of limits on the insurance claims a major part of his agenda last year.
By The News Service of Florida

Comments

3 Responses to “Judge Blocks Part Of PIP Insurance Law”

  1. kathy@frontier.net on March 23rd, 2013 3:57 pm

    I was struck while sitting at a red light on 29 when I was struck from behind, the gentleman was from Alabama and had no insurance. My PIP covered my neck surgery; repair of disc, plates and pins that now hold my neck together. I still ended up paying a couple of thousand but it did cover a great deal of the cost for medical care. That is what it was meant to do. If something cuts in to an insurance companies huge profits, its FRAUD and the Florida house and senate sits at their bidding.

  2. Jen on March 23rd, 2013 9:54 am

    I am an insurance agent who specializes in auto insurance. The new PIP law wasn’t meant to take away anyone’s rights. It was made to make it harder to committ fraud under the PIP coverage. By doing this, it was hoped that auto insurance companies would lower their rates and new companies would come into the area. I am so weary of seeing my clients pay these huge premiums simply because where they live. It is upsetting that the new law is being blocked. I was hoping that there was finally going to be a light at the end of the tunnel, i guess not.

  3. bill on March 21st, 2013 12:16 pm

    I was broadsided by a young man’s car who ran a stop sign on Davis. The force of the crash rolled my truck over and I landed on my head (lucky for me). Chiropractic manipulation, massage and acupuncture treatments all helped me to recover. The young man’s insurance company should be glad that they didn’t get a lawsuit from me for his actions and quit trying to deny people the coverage they deserve.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News