Florida's Assignment of Benefits Ban Cuts Auto Glass Lawsuits by 83% in First Full Year of Enforcement

One of the most consequential data points in 2024 auto glass industry history came in December, when litigation statistics shared at the Florida Chamber of Commerce Annual Insurance Summit revealed an 83-percent reduction in Florida auto glass lawsuits compared to the prior year. Attorney Ashley Kalifeh, who monitors court statistics for the Florida Justice Reform Institute (FJRI), provided the figures.

Approximately 10,000 auto glass cases were filed in Florida courts through the period covered by Kalifeh's presentation, compared to a final 2023 tally of about 60,000 cases. The 83-percent reduction directly reflected the impact of Florida's 2023 legislation banning assignment of benefits for auto glass claims—a ban that prevented the mass litigation model that had made Florida the epicenter of auto glass legal activity for nearly a decade.

The dramatic 2023 figure itself required context: it was an artificial spike caused by the AOB ban's phase-in mechanism. Because the tort reform bill (House Bill 837) specified that the AOB prohibition applied only to policies issued or renewed after the bill's March 24, 2023 effective date, claimants and their attorneys had a window to file AOB-based suits before those policies renewed. Attorneys filed tens of thousands of cases in advance of the renewal cycle completing, producing the anomalous 60,000-case year.

As policies renewed throughout 2023 and into 2024, the AOB ban progressively applied to a growing share of the insured vehicle fleet, and the lawsuit volume collapsed. The roughly 10,000 cases filed in 2024 likely represent the residual population of pre-ban policies still generating litigation plus any new claims brought on other legal theories.

For Florida glass shops that had operated under the AOB model—filing insurance claims as assignees and pursuing litigation when insurers paid less than billed amounts—the 83-percent lawsuit reduction represented a fundamental business model disruption. Shops that had adapted by building direct-pay customer relationships, securing insurance network agreements, and pricing work at rates acceptable to carriers without litigation were better positioned for the post-AOB environment.

For the broader industry watching Florida as a legislative bellwether, the 83-percent drop confirmed that AOB restriction legislation works as designed. States considering similar measures—Kentucky had already enacted one in 2024—could point to Florida's results as evidence that the legal reform produces the intended reduction in litigation volume.