'No courtesies to carriers' following Florida reforms, law firm memo dictates
Law firm Morgan & Morgan is calling on all its lawyers to not give 'an inch to carriers ever again’ during legal proceedings.
After Morgan & Morgan issued a memo outlining the firm’s plans to push back on insurer-side lawyers, several legal community observers are questioning whether the approach will be practical and even appropriate in the courtroom.
“Morgan & Morgan has put a target on their back, because by saying what they said in the memo, every judge who they now appear in front of is going to look and is going to carefully scrutinize whatever they are doing,” said Bob Jarvis, a Nova Southeastern University College of Law professor.
Morgan & Morgan’s COO Reuven Moskowitz penned the memo following Florida’s latest legislation aiming to limit personal injury lawsuits. Lawyers across Florida have been up in arms about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ latest move to help insurers avoid lawsuits since he signed the bill in late March. But Morgan & Morgan took it a step further in an internal memo calling on all its lawyers to “not be giving an inch to carriers ever again.”
“As a matter of policy we will not be granting any extensions of any sort moving forward for any reason. They can figure it out or file a motion,” said the memo, which was posted on several websites, including the ABA Journal. “Under no circumstances will we be agreeing to any continuances, discovery extensions, or request to extend deadline to answer complaints. Red line rules. It will be a serious internal offense if we find any courtesies being extended to the insurance industry.”
The memo adds: “We may want to help the human being defense attorney because we know them and maybe like them, but we will not because they work for an enemy who is heartless and ruthless. The enemy who just tried to kill us in FL.”
The memo, which a firm spokesperson said was leaked, went out the day DeSantis signed the bill. Morgan & Morgan did not provide a comment on the memo. But the firm did send a follow-up memo clarifying that its attorneys should follow Rules of Professional Conduct and civil procedure and that they should determine what to do in each case.
“All lawyers in their individual states are to make the legal decisions as requests come to their attention within their own discretion. These decisions are made on a case-by-case basis,” the memo reads.
Regardless, the initial call to arms could backfire in a few ways, according to some.
“It would be difficult for a law firm to do that because you can expect the other side to do the same,” said John Uustal, a founding partner at personal injury firm Kelley Uustal. “We need to have professional courtesy.”
Although Uustal agreed that insurers do benefit from stalling cases, he said that if executed, Morgan & Morgan’s approach could lead to a hard time for all lawyers involved. But he acknowledged that he interpreted the memo as a way of Morgan & Morgan saying that it is looking to avoid stalling of cases and that its attorneys will fight back harder now that the playing field is more tilted.
“The insurance companies wrote these laws and they got them passed,” Uustal said. “Now they enjoy all these great advantages, and it’s going to have devastating consequences on a lot of injured people, so we’re not going to allow any additional damage to be done. That’s how I took it.”
Regardless of the intention, Jarvis said Morgan & Morgan might come to regret the memo. He also contemplated whether The Florida Bar would take action on the matter.
A spokesperson for the Florida Bar did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it’s received complaints or whether it will take action.
“Bottom line is, you’re going to get in a lot of trouble if you do this and no lawyer should be following Morgan & Morgan,” Jarvis said. “It is serious. It was stunning when I first heard about it.”
Morgan & Morgan, one of Florida’s most prominent personal injury law firms with billboards and commercials spread across the state, has been playing defense against DeSantis, who called the legislation “reforms to protect Floridians from predatory billboard attorneys.”
“My slogan is ‘For the people.’ This DeSantis legislation is ‘F— the people,’” Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan said in an interview with South Florida filmmaker Billy Corben a few days after the law went into effect.
Related: