Florida Governor Signs SB 1002, Banning AOB and Zero-Deductible Status for Auto Glass

One of the most significant regulatory events in U.S. auto-glass history in 2023 occurred when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1002 into law. The legislation — which eliminated Assignment of Benefits agreements for auto-glass repair claims and removed the zero-deductible status that had long applied to Florida glass claims — represented a fundamental restructuring of how glass work would be billed and compensated in the state.

Supporters designed the law to address what they characterized as an explosion in fraudulent glass claims. NICB data used during the legislative debate showed that auto-glass lawsuits in Florida had increased by nearly 4,000 percent from 2011 to 2021. Florida alone accounted for nearly half a million auto-glass claims in 2020, while Florida and Arizona together represented 74 percent of all questionable auto-glass claims filed nationally.

Under AOB as it had operated in Florida, a policyholder could sign over the right to pursue an insurance claim directly to the glass shop. This allowed shops to bill insurers and litigate unpaid claims on behalf of the vehicle owner. Proponents argued it protected consumers from insurer delay tactics. Critics argued it enabled some shops to file inflated or fabricated claims with minimal oversight.

With SB 1002, policyholders in Florida could no longer sign an AOB for glass work, and the zero-deductible structure that had effectively removed any consumer cost-sharing from glass claims was eliminated. Insurers could now apply deductibles to glass claims, reducing the volume of marginal claims while increasing the financial exposure for policyholders with chips or cracks they might previously have repaired for free.

The Florida Independent Glass Association and individual shop owners who had relied on AOB faced an immediate challenge: redesigning their billing workflows, customer communication scripts, and payment-collection processes for a fundamentally different regulatory environment.

For shops outside Florida, the SB 1002 outcome was a bellwether. Other states with high claim volumes had been watching the Florida debate closely. The precedent set by the nation's most active glass-claim market would influence policy debates elsewhere for years.