Florida’s 2023 Tort Reform (HB 837): What Changed for Injury Victims

Florida’s civil litigation landscape changed significantly on March 24, 2023, when Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 837 (“Civil Remedies”) into law as Chapter 2023-15, Laws of Florida. The bill took effect immediately upon signing and amended multiple sections of the Florida Statutes governing negligence claims, insurance disputes, and premises liability.

HB 837 was one of the most sweeping tort reform packages in Florida’s history. It touched how fault is assigned, how insurance bad-faith claims work, what evidence juries can see about medical bills, and how much liability property owners face for crimes committed by third parties. This page walks through each major change, what it actually says in the statute, and who it affects. It is a general explainer, not legal advice — if you’ve been injured, how these rules apply to your specific case depends on facts only an attorney can evaluate.

1. Modified Comparative Negligence: The 51% Bar Rule

Before HB 837, Florida used “pure comparative negligence.” A plaintiff could recover damages from a defendant even if the plaintiff was found mostly at fault for their own injury — a plaintiff who was 90% at fault could still recover 10% of their damages.

HB 837 amended Florida Statutes § 768.81 to replace that system with “modified comparative negligence.” Under the amended subsection (6), “any party found to be greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages.” In practice: a plaintiff found 50% or less at fault can still recover a proportional share of damages, but a plaintiff found more than 50% at fault recovers nothing.

Medical malpractice exception: The statute specifically carves out an exception. Subsection (6) states that the 51% bar “does not apply to an action for damages for personal injury or wrongful death… arising out of medical negligence pursuant to chapter 766.” In other words, medical malpractice claims still operate under the old pure comparative negligence rule — a plaintiff in a med-mal case can recover a proportional share of damages even if found more than 50% at fault.

This change applies to causes of action filed after March 24, 2023 (not to cases already pending on that date).

2. One-Way Attorney Fee Provisions Eliminated for Most Insurance Disputes

For decades, Florida law let a policyholder who successfully sued their insurer over a coverage dispute recover their attorney’s fees from the insurer — even if the insurer never acted in bad faith — under what are commonly called “one-way” fee-shifting statutes. HB 837 repealed the core of that framework:

• § 627.428 (the general one-way attorney fee statute for insureds) — repealed
• § 626.9373 (the equivalent provision for surplus lines insurers) — repealed
• § 631.926 (a related fee provision) — repealed

In their place, HB 837 created § 86.121, which limits one-way fee recovery to declaratory judgment actions over coverage, and only where the insurer totally denied the claim — a partial denial doesn’t qualify. The bill also created § 624.1552, applying Florida’s offer-of-judgment statute (§ 768.79) to insurance-contract litigation generally, which gives insurers a new fee-shifting tool of their own if a policyholder rejects a reasonable settlement offer and does worse at trial.

One important carve-out: prevailing-insured attorney fees remain available in bad-faith actions under § 624.155(7), discussed below.

3. Bad Faith Insurance Claims: New Standards and a 90-Day Safe Harbor

HB 837 significantly amended § 624.155, Florida’s bad-faith insurance statute, in several ways:

• Negligence alone isn’t enough. Under the amended § 624.155(5)(a), “mere negligence alone is insufficient to constitute bad faith.” A claimant now has to show more than a simple mistake by the insurer.
• Claimants have reciprocal good-faith duties. Under § 624.155(5)(b), insureds, claimants, and their representatives now have a duty to act in good faith when providing claim information, making demands, setting deadlines, and negotiating. This doesn’t create a new cause of action against a claimant, but a factfinder may use a claimant’s bad-faith conduct to reduce the damages awarded against the insurer.
• A 90-day safe harbor. Under § 624.155(4), an insurer that tenders the lesser of the policy limits or the amount the claimant demanded, within 90 days of receiving notice of a claim supported by sufficient evidence, cannot be found to have acted in bad faith on that claim. If the insurer misses the 90-day window, that fact is inadmissible to prove bad faith — but the statute of limitations is then extended by an additional 90 days so the claimant can still pursue a bad-faith claim.
• Multiple-claimant protection. Under § 624.155(6), when competing claims from multiple people could exceed a single policy’s limits, an insurer avoids being liable beyond those limits by, within 90 days of notice of the competing claims, either filing an interpleader action or securing the claimants’ agreement to binding arbitration with the full policy limits made available.

(Note: some secondary sources describe a “120-day” window for this safe harbor. We verified the statute’s actual text on flsenate.gov and confirmed the window is 90 days, not 120 — treat any source citing 120 days as an error.)

4. Medical Damages Evidence: What Juries Can See About Medical Bills

HB 837 created § 768.0427, a new statute governing what evidence of medical expenses is admissible in personal injury and wrongful death cases, and it directly addresses letters of protection (LOPs) — arrangements where a medical provider treats a patient without upfront payment in exchange for a promised cut of any judgment or settlement.

Key provisions:

• Already-paid expenses: Evidence of past medical expenses that have already been paid is limited to the amount actually paid, not the amount originally billed.
• Unpaid charges: For unpaid past or future care, admissible evidence generally reflects what the claimant’s health coverage would actually pay, plus the claimant’s own share. Uninsured claimants, or those on Medicare/Medicaid, may introduce evidence based on 120% of the Medicare rate (or 170% of the Medicaid rate where no Medicare rate applies).
• LOP disclosure requirements: A claimant who received treatment under a letter of protection must disclose the LOP itself, itemized and coded bills, any sale of the receivable to a factoring company (and the price paid), their health coverage status at the time of treatment, and who referred them for LOP-based treatment. If an attorney made the referral, that fact is now discoverable and admissible — overriding the Florida Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Worley v. Central Florida YMCA, which had shielded those referral relationships from discovery.
• Overall damages cap: Recoverable medical damages cannot exceed the sum of amounts actually paid, amounts still owed for past care, and amounts reasonably needed for future care.

The statute of limitations for filing personal injury and wrongful death negligence claims was also shortened by HB 837, from four years to two years under § 95.11. Because that change deserves its own careful treatment — including exactly how the new deadline is calculated for different types of claims — we cover it in depth, with an interactive date calculator, on our Florida Accident Deadline Checker page rather than repeating it here.

5. Negligent Security: A Safe Harbor for Multifamily Property Owners

HB 837 added § 768.0706, creating a rebuttable presumption against liability for owners and operators of “multifamily residential property” (generally, five or more dwelling units on one parcel — apartment complexes, townhome communities, and similar properties) when a crime is committed on the premises by a third party who isn’t their employee or agent.

To claim the presumption, an owner must prove it substantially implemented a specific list of security measures, including:

• Video surveillance at entry and exit points, retained for at least 30 days
• Parking lot lighting averaging at least 1.8 foot-candles from dusk to dawn
• Lighting in walkways, laundry rooms, and common areas
• Deadbolt locks at least one inch thick on unit doors, plus working locks on windows and sliding doors
• Locked gates on pool areas
• Peepholes on unit doors without a nearby window
• A current crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) assessment (required beginning January 1, 2025) and ongoing staff safety training

A related provision, § 768.0701, requires juries to allocate fault among everyone who contributed to a plaintiff’s injuries in these cases — including the criminal third party — rather than holding only the property owner responsible, moving these cases away from joint-and-several liability.

Who HB 837 Helps, and Who It Burdens

HB 837 is widely described by legal commentators, on both the plaintiff and defense sides of the bar, as shifting Florida’s civil litigation system in favor of defendants and insurers. The 51% comparative-fault bar, the repeal of one-way attorney fee statutes, the new bad-faith defenses, and the negligent-security safe harbor all make it harder, in various ways, for injured plaintiffs to win a case or to make insurers and property owners pay for refusing to settle or for inadequate security.

At the same time, some provisions cut in the other direction or are more neutral: the medical-expenses statute requires disclosure that can expose practices on both sides (including attorney-referral and factoring arrangements that affect how much a plaintiff actually recovers), and the 90-day bad-faith safe harbor only protects insurers that promptly pay what’s owed — it doesn’t protect insurers who simply stonewall. Supporters of the bill argued it would reduce litigation costs and, over time, insurance premiums in a state with a notoriously difficult property and liability insurance market. Critics, including many plaintiffs’ attorneys and consumer advocates, argue it makes it meaningfully harder for injured Floridians — especially those found partly at fault for accidents, or those pursuing claims against insurers and large property owners — to be made whole.

Whichever side of that debate you land on, the practical reality for anyone injured in Florida today is that the rules changed in 2023, and claims now have to be built and litigated differently than they were before.

How Darfoor Law Firm Can Help

Darfoor Law Firm, P.A. (The Injury Advocates) represents injury victims throughout Broward County, North Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach County in catastrophic injury, premises liability, and other personal injury matters affected by these 2023 changes. Understanding how the comparative-fault bar, the medical-expense evidence rules, and the negligent-security safe harbor apply to a specific case requires a careful look at the facts. If you’ve been injured and have questions about how current Florida law affects your claim, our office is based in Plantation, FL and can be reached for a free consultation.

Sources

• Florida Statutes § 768.81 (2023) — Comparative Fault — flsenate.gov, official statute text
• Florida Statutes § 624.155 (2023) — Bad Faith Actions Against Insurers — flsenate.gov, official statute text
• Florida Statutes § 768.0427 (2023) — Admissibility of Medical Expenses; Letters of Protection — flsenate.gov, official statute text
• Florida Statutes § 768.0706 (2023) — Multifamily Residential Property Safe Harbor — flsenate.gov, official statute text
• Florida Statutes § 86.121 (2024) — Declaratory Judgment Attorney Fees — flsenate.gov, official statute text
• Chapter 2023-15, Laws of Florida (CS/CS/HB 837, Civil Remedies) — official session law text confirming repeal of §§ 627.428, 626.9373, 631.926 and creation of §§ 86.121, 624.1552
• CS/CS/HB 837 (2023), Civil Remedies — Bill History — flsenate.gov, official bill page
• Florida Enacts Major Tort Reform and Bad Faith Insurance Claim Legislation — Holland & Knight, March 28, 2023
• Tort Reform Overhauls Florida’s Litigation Landscape — Greenberg Traurig
• Bill CS/HB 837 Civil Remedies Legislation Memo and Summary — Broward County Bar Association

Last updated October 2026. This page summarizes Chapter 2023-15, Laws of Florida (HB 837) and is provided for general information only; it is not legal advice.