For Florida's largest P&C insurers, new litigated claims increased in June. We saw a 14 percent increase in new litigated claims, to 6,398 from 5,364 in May. The June increase extends the upward trend in new litigated claims that began in June 2020 and has only had minor dips in November 2020 and May 2021.
All but one of the 17 largest Florida insurers we regularly monitor increased their litigated claims month over month in June. During the same time period, litigated claims for six insurers increased by more than 20%, while another seven increased by 10% to 20%.
"The number of new litigated claims continues to rise to significant levels," said Wesley Todd, CEO of CaseGlide. "We're seeing figures at or around 6,400 newly litigated cases in a month for the second month this year." We haven't seen that kind of volume since we started tracking the data in 2015. We intend to keep a close eye on the data to determine whether or not Governor DeSantis's recent signing of SB 76, aimed at restructuring litigation rules in Florida, provides meaningful relief for the state's insurers."
In June, AOB cases accounted for 23 percent of all new litigated cases. While that percentage hasn't changed much in the last year, it is down significantly from a peak of 55 percent in May 2019. We expect that percentage to remain stable as we approach the end of 2021.
In 2021, the top ten AOB contractors in the state will account for 37% of all AOB-related new litigated claims, with the top contractor alone accounting for nearly 10%.
The geographical distribution of newly litigated claims continues to be dominated by the state's southern counties, with Miami-Dade accounting for 20% of claims, Broward at 17%, and Palm Beach at 9%. Those county percentages have remained mostly consistent throughout 2021.
CaseGlide will continue to closely monitor this data to see if these patterns persist and how the trends will affect insurers across Florida.