"Plaintiffs attorneys should be aware that this is something carriers might be doing or might start doing. Defendant attorneys would probably want to be aware as well, given that they may be put in the position of defending the tactic before the court in the future," attorney Michael Hersh said.

"The homeowner never authorized the work, and People's Trust told her that she was in breach of the insurance contract," according to the ruling.

"Litigation costs rise because insurance companies repeatedly fail to address insurance claims, which necessitate litigation. We believe that once again Citizens are misusing the law as written and that is why we have brought this class action forward," attorney Michael Citron said.

"You have a condensed amount of time to try to show a jury the true harms and losses, and that's tough to do," said plaintiff counsel Derrick Connell.

"Insurance companies have no protectable privacy right when they are coming to an insured house to inspect or appraise property," appellate lawyer Samuel Alexander said.

"It's a significant decision, because until today insurance companies couldn't sue lawyers they hired and paid," said Miami-based legal ethics expert Andrew Berman. "Now they can."

Attorney Kelly Ruane Melchiondo believes consumers and companies are in a tug-of-war over the control of data. She said the consumer-protection statute would give the power back to consumers to control what happens to the data they share.