FLORIDA RETURNS TO NO-FAULT

The no-fault motor insurance system has returned to the Florida market after a three month hiatus. Lawmakers had let the so-called personal injury protection (PIP) system lapse in October owing to rampant fraud, but reinstituted the system with new limits on healthcare charges and other reforms to reduce fraud. PIP pays the first $10,000 in medical costs for an injury resulting from car crash, regardless of fault. The law has been in place since the 1970s, but had become a notable area for fraud, with staged crashes generated fake injury reports. Insurers were among the critics of the old PIP system, which expired on October 1. The new law contains several provisions that aim to reduce fraud levels, including limits on what certain healthcare clinics can charge and the rules under which they can operate. State Far, one of the leading motor insurers in Florida, continues to maintain that compulsory PIP coverage is unfair, and has claimed that the newly drafted law still does not do enough to prevent fraud.