As Floridians grapple with the unprecedented cost of property insurance we risk losing focus on the root cause of the problem while spending too much time discussing symptoms. Yes, most of us have seen our rates skyrocket, some, like me, have had it cancelled and others have been forced to move half-way back to whence they came. The larger cause is a ‘tort tax’ which is the net result of impact frivolous lawsuit pose upon the whole of the economy. 

The property insurance crisis is only one of the many impacts of the root cause which has been a drag upon our state economy for several years now. Our flawed civil justice system in Florida is generating an exorbitantly high cost upon nearly every transaction we make as Floridians. The ‘tort tax’ as we call it, according to the Perryman Group, reflects a hidden cost of goods, services and jobs of an estimated $1056 per person in the state. 

Some communities it impacts at an even higher rate. For instance, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metro area checks in at nearly $1378 per person. The Perryman Group’s calculations identify a loss of jobs, due to the tax, to be more than 36 thousand!  This removes more than 5 billion in direct costs from the local economy while reducing the gross product by over 8 billion, all while robbing more than 5 billion in personal income.