Florida Insurance Claim Dispute Lawyer

Every injury claim is, in the end, a dispute with an insurance company

The driver who hit you is not the one who decides what your claim is worth; an adjuster is, working for a company whose profit depends on paying less. Most people’s first experience of a serious claim is the same: a friendly call in the first week, a recorded statement they shouldn’t have given, a request for medical records that reaches back years, an offer that arrives before treatment is finished, and then silence. Kemp Law Group represents people across Florida, and in Georgia through our Georgia-admitted attorney, in the disputes that follow: denied and delayed liability claims, uninsured motorist claims against a client’s own carrier, PIP cutoffs, and the bad faith that Florida law still punishes when an insurer could have settled and chose not to. The firm was founded in 2008 by Stacy Kemp Ferrari, has recovered more than $400 million for its clients, and holds a 4.9-star rating across more than 950 Google reviews.

Call (727) 847-4878 or contact us online for a free case review. We answer 24/7, and you pay no fee unless we win.

The three kinds of claim, and the rules each insurer has to follow

The at-fault driver’s liability insurer

This is the carrier that owes you for the other driver’s negligence, and it owes you nothing by contract; its duties run to its own insured. What Florida law gives you against it: a right to know what coverage exists (under section 627.4137, an insurer must disclose its insured’s policy limits and a copy of the policy within 30 days of a written request, which is the first letter we send); the prohibition on unfair claim settlement practices in section 626.9541; and, since the 2023 reform, the 90-day rule in section 624.155, under which a liability insurer that pays its policy limits within 90 days of receiving actual notice of a claim, with sufficient evidence to support it, is protected from a bad faith claim. That rule cuts both ways. It protects carriers that pay promptly, and it exposes carriers that receive a complete, documented demand and let the 90 days run. Our demand packages are built to be that demand: liability, medical proof, economic losses and the law, delivered so the insurer’s only choices are to pay its limits or accept the exposure above them.

Your own insurer: uninsured motorist and PIP

Your UM carrier and your PIP carrier are bound to you by contract, and the relationship changes the moment you make a claim: they investigate you. UM claims bring a request for a recorded statement, an examination under oath, medical authorizations and an independent medical examination, each a condition of the policy that must be met with care. PIP claims are cut by the 14-day rule, the emergency medical condition finding, paper reviews and fee-schedule reductions, as our PIP page explains. A first-party claim that is denied or underpaid can be sued on as a breach of contract, and an insurer that refuses in bad faith to settle a UM claim within its limits is exposed to the full judgment under section 624.155 after a civil remedy notice is filed with the Department of Financial Services and the 60-day cure period runs. That notice is the single most effective document in a UM dispute, and we file it when the facts support it.

Health insurers, Medicare and medical providers

The insurers that paid your treatment want to be repaid from your recovery: health plans under their subrogation clauses, Medicare and Medicaid under federal and state law, hospitals under Florida’s lien statutes where they apply, and providers who treated under a letter of protection. Resolving those claims is part of every settlement, and reducing them is where a meaningful share of a client’s net recovery is found. A PIP carrier, by contrast, has no lien on your recovery at all under section 627.736(3).

What insurers do, and what we do about it

• The recorded statement. Requested early, used later. You have no obligation to give one to the other driver’s insurer; your own policy may require one, and we prepare and attend it.
• The blanket medical authorization. It reaches your entire history so the insurer can argue your injury was pre-existing. We produce the records that matter, with the treating physicians’ explanation of causation, and nothing more.
• The early offer. Made before anyone knows what the injury is. Accepting it releases the claim forever. We do not value a case until the doctors can say what the future holds.
• Delay. Weeks without a response, a new adjuster, a request for something already sent. Under section 626.9541 an insurer must acknowledge and act on communications with reasonable promptness, and a documented pattern of delay is evidence in a bad faith case.
• The lowball. An offer that ignores the permanent injury, the future care or the lost earning capacity. The answer is the demand package and, when the offer does not move, the lawsuit, a proposal for settlement under section 768.79 that makes the insurer liable for your attorney’s fees if it rejects the proposal and the judgment beats it by the statutory margin, and the bad faith exposure that follows an unreasonable refusal.
• Dispute of fault. Assigning a share to the person hurt, because under section 768.81 every percentage point reduces the recovery. Answered with evidence, not argument.

Bad faith in Florida after 2023

Florida still recognizes an insurer’s duty to settle in good faith, and an insurer that fails it can owe the entire judgment regardless of policy limits. The 2023 reform changed how the claim is made: mere negligence by the insurer is no longer enough; the insured and the claimant must act in good faith themselves, with a comparative reduction for a claimant’s bad faith; the 90-day safe harbor applies to liability claims; and where several claimants exceed the limits, an insurer can discharge its duty by paying the limits into court or through an interpleader within 90 days. The one-way attorney’s fee statute that once applied to first-party coverage suits, section 627.428, was repealed for policies issued or renewed after March 24, 2023, leaving fees available in a declaratory action after a total coverage denial under section 86.121 and through proposals for settlement. A bad faith claim is still a powerful tool; it has to be built from the first demand rather than discovered at the end.

Deadlines

A negligence claim against the at-fault driver must be filed within two years under section 95.11, and the demand that starts the 90-day clock has to go out long before that. A suit on your own policy is a contract action with a five-year period. A civil remedy notice must be filed and the 60-day cure period must run before a statutory bad faith suit. Government defendants have the notice and cap rules in section 768.28. We work to the shortest of whatever applies.

Where we handle insurance disputes

Kemp Law Group handles liability, uninsured motorist and PIP disputes for injured people throughout Florida and in Georgia, from our office at 11567 Trinity Boulevard in Trinity. See our pages for car accidents, hit-and-run claims and PIP, for Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties, for South Florida, Central Florida, Southwest Florida and North Florida, and for Georgia. Our guide to the 2023 tort reform explains the changes in more detail. See our case results.

Frequently asked questions about Florida insurance claim disputes

The insurance company denied my claim. Is that final?

No. A denial is the insurer’s position, not a ruling. A liability denial is answered with the evidence of fault and a demand; a denial by your own carrier is a breach of contract if the policy covers the loss, and bad faith if the refusal was unreasonable. We review the denial letter, the policy and the facts and tell you which it is.

Can I find out how much insurance the other driver has?

Yes. Under section 627.4137 the insurer must disclose the policy limits and provide a copy of the policy within 30 days of a written request, which we send at the start of every case.

What is a civil remedy notice?

A filing with the Florida Department of Financial Services that identifies an insurer’s violation and gives it 60 days to cure, usually by paying the claim. It is a prerequisite to a statutory bad faith suit and, in an uninsured motorist dispute, often the step that produces the payment.

The adjuster says my injury was pre-existing. What now?

Prior conditions do not bar recovery; an at-fault party is responsible for aggravating them. The treating physicians’ records and testimony establish what the crash changed, and we limit the insurer’s access to records that have nothing to do with it.

Should I accept the first offer?

Almost never. Early offers are made before the injury is understood, and accepting one releases the claim permanently. Have the offer evaluated against the medical evidence and the available coverage before responding.

Can I sue my own insurance company?

Yes. A denied or underpaid uninsured motorist or PIP claim is a breach of contract, and an unreasonable refusal to settle can support a bad faith claim after a civil remedy notice. The 2023 fee changes mean each suit is evaluated on its own numbers before it is filed.

What does an insurance dispute lawyer cost?

Nothing up front for injury clients. We work on a contingency fee within the Florida Bar’s maximum percentages, paid only from a recovery, and we advance the costs of the case. If there is no recovery, you owe no fee.

If an insurer is denying, delaying or underpaying your Florida injury claim, call (727) 847-4878 or request a free case review online. We answer 24 hours a day, and you pay nothing unless we win.