The saga continues within the struggle for policyholder rights in opposition to Residents Property Insurance coverage Company and its constitutionally suspect DOAH arbitration scheme. Simply when it appeared Residents may achieve a procedural edge by invoking an automated keep by its attraction, the trial courtroom stepped in once more. This time with an emphatic reaffirmation of its earlier ruling. The courtroom has vacated the automated keep that was triggered when Residents filed its discover of attraction, which means that the injunction halting all DOAH arbitrations is as soon as once more in full impact whereas the appellate courtroom takes up the matter. 1
Yesterday’s new order doesn’t mince phrases. It not solely reaffirms the sooner constitutional issues in regards to the DOAH arbitration course of however goes additional in laying out the extraordinary hurt confronted by policyholders trapped in that system. The decide discovered that irreparable hurt stays each “unmistakable and extreme,” pointing to structural bias within the DOAH discussion board and the lack of insureds to entry significant discovery, movement follow, or judicial overview.
The decide acknowledged the rising sample of Residents being awarded charges and prices in that venue, whereas policyholders are denied even fundamental procedural equity. In impact, the courtroom known as out the system for what it’s, a one-sided administrative course of that deprives residents of their constitutional proper to a day in courtroom.
This ruling additionally rejected Residents’ argument that it will endure hurt if the keep have been lifted. As a substitute, the decide famous that any motion briefly enjoined might merely resume if Residents finally prevails on attraction. In distinction, permitting the keep to stay would danger denying policyholders their core constitutional protections. That’s a tradeoff the courtroom was not keen to make, and rightly so.
The courtroom emphasised that Florida householders insured by Residents are being handled in another way from these insured by non-public carriers, who’re afforded significant protections beneath Florida Statute §627.70154. This unequal therapy, particularly in issues as severe as entry to justice, violates the essential tenets of due course of.
It’s value remembering that this all stems from a statute that permits Residents to bypass the courtroom system totally and power disputes into an administrative discussion board that it didn’t have to barter for, and that provides no low cost or various to the home-owner. The statute created a entice door out of courtroom and right into a discussion board the place Residents has traditionally dominated. Now, because of this case, that door has been slammed shut, not less than in the interim.
That is one other main step ahead in what has grow to be a defining authorized battle for property insurance coverage policyholders in Florida. The courts are recognizing that even a state-created insurer like Residents can’t bypass the Structure within the title of effectivity. As this case strikes ahead on attraction, the injunction stays in place, and so does the sign despatched by the trial courtroom: constitutional rights aren’t elective, and arbitration by ambush has no place in Florida’s justice system.
One other query is why Florida’s legislators ever handed a legislation that deprives Floridians of protections beneath Florida’s Structure. Some might recommend that that is one other instance of Florida’s political management being extra in mattress with insurance coverage lobbyists than caring about Florida’s householders.
Thought For The Day
“If we’re to maintain our democracy, there have to be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.”
—Choose Discovered Hand
1 Alvarez v. Residents Prop. Ins. Corp., No. 25-CA-006626 (Fla. Cir. Ct. [Hillsborough] Aug. 21, 2025).
