Despite the fact that there is an endless stream of TV commercials that keep bombarding Floridians about the need to pay their quarterly auto insurance premiums, there are few who actually enjoy paying them. Floridians are currently paying around $1,200 more than people elsewhere in the Southeast.
Lawmakers in Florida should find ways and means to ease the burden of paying auto insurance bills. It is necessary to come down heavily on those factors that have led to an increase in premiums. There should be limits to the attorney’s fees as well as the fraud which is perpetuated due to flaws in the PIP auto insurance.
Despite the fact that PIP is a good idea, it hasn’t worked well for Floridians.
In general, whenever there is an auto collision the insurers, motorists, as well as the courts determine who was at fault. After this is done, the party which is ‘at fault’ has to pay or rather their insurance company will have to pay for the damages to the one who has been harmed in the accident.
But in Florida as well as 8 other states, motorists must carry insurance coverage or around $10,000 and they can claim against their own insurance companies for a part of the medical bills that are related to the injury irrespective of who was at fault at the time of the accident.
Floridians, who are injured in a motor vehicle accident here, cannot sue the fellow motorists until and unless there is a huge medical bill or clear evidence of negligence on the driver’s part. So, theoretically speaking the PIP system has lots of advantages as injured drivers will be able to receive quick settlements even when the other person is uninsured, and there are lesser legal expenses and insurers in turn can spend much more on the benefits.
But the irony is that the PIP version in Florida has not really succeeded in bringing down legal costs. The main issue here is with the ‘multiplier’ that is given to lawyers who manage to win the PIP cases. Here they typically get paid around 250% of the regular fees, whenever they fight a PIP case and win. This was done initially in order to encourage lawyers to fight civil rights cases and this was never meant for regular disputes that arise between customers and insurers.
Hence, in order to combat fraud Florida needs tougher penalties, more investigators, and stricter laws against it.
