Claims abuse reform bill advancing

But senators want attorney and insurer groups to seek compromise

Score one for the trial attorneys in their long-running battle with Florida’s property insurers over third-party claims assignments, but this year’s war is far from over.

The state Senate Banking and Insurance Committee rejected a proposal favored by insurers and OK’d a bill supported by plaintiffs attorneys and water damage restoration contractors on Tuesday.

But several committee members said they expected changes to the attorney-friendly bill in upcoming hearings and called for negotiations by lawmakers to continue.

Sen. Anitere Flores, RMiami, painted by the property insurance industry as unwilling to support reforms to prevent fraudulent claims, called for insurers to guarantee that rates would go down if changes they seek are enacted. Insurers have blamed several years of rate increases abuses.

“There’s been a lot of testimony on how much rates will go up if there’s no action,” she said. “But if we take away the problem … they can’t tell us how much rates will go down. I have a real problem with that, and I think other members do as well.”

Tuesday’s meeting was the latest chapter in a yearslong battle between Florida’s property insurers and trial lawyers over an affidavit called an “assignment of benefits.”

Contractors require homeowners to sign an AOB before commencing repairs because it gives them authority to bill insurers on homeowners’ behalf.

Insurers say contractors abuse that authority by inflating invoices or performing unneeded work and then filing suit when insurers balk at paying the invoice.

Attorneys on claims counter that