It has been five years since Florida lawmakers decided to insert a provision into the insurance code calling for Florida's Motor Vehicle No-Fault law to sunset as of October 1, 2007, unless state lawmakers moved to reenact the coverage. Since that time, there has been little movement on the part of lawmakers, carriers, attorneys, or healthcare providers to reach an agreement on whether to keep the law intact or jettison it in favor of a return to the tort system. At this writing, more and more of the players are preparing to see the end of no-fault and face a new world on October 2.

“Everyday it is coming closer and closer to happening,” said William Stander, spokesperson for Property and Casualty Insurers Association of American. “I sincerely doubt that the legislature is going to come into special session if there is no solution in sight that is achievable.” Case in point, he said, is the decision by lawmakers not to pass a PIP bill this session, which would have given lawmakers the political cover needed to sidestep the issue while still having in hand a plan to show their constituents.

Under SB 1880, by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, the Department of Financial Services and Office of Insurance Regulation would have been required to submit a report of the effectiveness of the state's no-fault law by October 2010. Unless the legislature acted to address the problems identified in the report, the no-fault law would sunset as of the 2011 legislative session. The bill also would have funded 30 new positions in the department's fraud division to investigate fraudulent activities. While the bill passed in the Senate, due to strong objections among House lawmakers, House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Miami-Dade) blocked the bill by never allowing it to come up for a vote. “The speaker stood his ground and was not willing to push for the bill for the sake of avoiding conflict,” said Stander. “Unless the system is substantially reformed, no-fault is going away.”