{"id":53774,"date":"2025-11-20T06:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T06:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/53774\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T06:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T06:26:07","slug":"florida-judge-orders-citizens-arbitration-to-continue-clashing-with-other-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/53774\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Judge Orders Citizens\u2019 Arbitration to Continue, Clashing With Other Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

The legal battle over Florida\u2019s property insurer of last resort\u2019s use of a state agency to hear claims disputes in arbitration took new turns this week, prompting one policyholder attorney to note that a move designed to reduce courtroom time has now resulted in months of litigation across four different court venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re playing chess now, not checkers. I move here; they move there,\u201d said attorney Lynn Brauer, who represents Martin Alvarez, a Tampa-area homeowner, in a legal challenge against Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which is still one of the largest insurers in the state.<\/p>\n

Citizens announced earlier this week that a Leon County Circuit judge has ordered the state Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) to continue hearing more than 400 pending Citizens\u2019 claims disputes, despite a Tampa judge\u2019s order pausing the DOAH arbitration hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens\u2019 Petition for writ of mandamus is hereby GRANTED. DOAH shall promptly resume administering proceedings as required \u2026 except as pertains to the plaintiff in Alvarez v. Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp.,\u201d Leon County Judge Jonathan Sjostrom wrote in his Nov. 14 order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brauer (Florida Bar)<\/p>\n

The order differs sharply from the Hillsborough County judge\u2019s Aug.1 order in the Alvarez case, which placed a hold on DOAH\u2019s Citizens proceedings due to questions about the arrangement\u2019s constiutionality and fairness to policyholders. A Citizens\u2019 official said in a news release that numerous state court judges have agreed with the Leon County judge and have found no problem with the insurer\u2019s arbitration process.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens remains committed to defending DOAH arbitrations because it is a fair and transparent process, allowing Citizens and policyholders to resolve claims disputes much faster than overburdened state courts (90 days on average, instead of almost two years),\u201d wrote Michael Peltier, Citizens\u2019 director of communications.<\/p>\n

A number of claimants and their lawyers have said the DOAH process stacks the deck against homeowners. Cases are conducted on a tight deadline, multiple cases can be scheduled for the same week, and attorney fees are low. The vast majority of decisions have fallen in favor of Citizens, prompting more and more policyholders to settle their claims for just $250, lawyers have said. Recent DOAH data<\/a> supports that contention.<\/p>\n

The Leon County order now raises a fundamental question, Brauer said. It orders DOAH to continue hearings, but the Hillsborough order still stands, barring from Citizens from requesting DOAH arbitration.<\/p>\n

\u201cDOAH is authorized to proceed but Citizens is not,\u201d Brauer said.<\/p>\n

She plans to file a response this week to Sjostrom\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Citizens on Nov. 14 suddenly dropped its request to have the Alvarez homeowner policy claim dispute heard by DOAH\u2019s administrative judges and has asked the Hillsborough judge to dismiss the Alvarez lawsuit<\/a> altogether. Citizens officials could not be reached for comment on the reasons for that, but Brauer said it was likely a move by the insurer to \u201cbe rid of\u201d Polo\u2019s order that barred more DOAH hearings.<\/p>\n

Citizens also had asked a state appellate court to block Hillsborough County Judge Melissa Polo from moving ahead with her order while the Alvarez case is pending. But the 2nd District Court of Appeals on Sept. 12 denied Citizens\u2019 motion.<\/p>\n

In a side note to the Alvarez case, Citizens\u2019 attorney, former state Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston, had asked Polo to disqualify herself from hearing the litigation, contending that she had shown herself to be biased. Polo in September declined to remove herself from the case, noting the request was \u201clegally insufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in another development in the lawsuit, another Tampa-area homeowner intervened and filed an emergency motion for sanctions against Citizens. Christopher and Jennifer Bush argued in the motion that, despite Polo\u2019s Aug. 1 order temporarily barring new DOAH hearings, Citizens has moved the Bush\u2019s claim dispute to DOAH for arbitration.<\/p>\n

Despite 2022 and 2023 actions by the Florida Legislature that ended one-way attorney fees and assignment-of-benefit agreements\u2014statutory changes that have greatly reduced excessive claims litigation\u2014lawsuit costs remain an issue for Citizens and other property insurers. And Brauer\u2019s Miami-based firm, Insurance Trial Lawyers, is one of the most proficient instigators of claims lawsuits, Citizens\u2019 data show.<\/p>\n

The law firm, also known as Florida Insurance Law Group, now has 358 cases pending against Citizens, the insurer said this week. That\u2019s 100 more cases than the next-busiest firm, MSPG Law Group, which has offices in Miami, Louisiana and Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m persona non grata with Citizens,\u201d Brauer said.<\/p>\n

A separate piece of litigation, a federal lawsuit challenging Citizens\u2019 DOAH arbitration as unconstitutional, was dismissed in September.<\/p>\n

Related: Florida Judge Blocks DOAH for Citizens Claims Disputes<\/a><\/p>\n

While One Suit Over Citizens\u2019 Arbitration is Dropped, Drama Builds in Another<\/a><\/p>\n

Citizens No Longer Winning Most Arbitration Cases. They\u2019re Settling for Next to Nil<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Topics
\n Florida<\/a>
\n Legislation<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

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