Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty's office has filedan appeal to stop a temporary injunction of certain provisionswithin what the insurance industry had called the most significantauto insurance law in decades.

McCarty's Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) filed anotice of appeal on March 21, which immediately stays a temporaryorder of injunction from the Second Circuit Court in Leon County,Fla. that would have allowed acupuncturists and massage therapiststo receive personal injury protection (PIP) benefits and eliminatedthe requirement that a person have an “emergency medical condition”as a prerequisite to receiving full PIP benefits.

“This appeal will act as a stay of the injunction order untilthe 1^st District Court of Appeals rules on this matter,”says the OIR, adding that it informed all insurers of theinjunction and subsequent appeal by the OIR.

HB 119, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in law last May wascelebrated by the insurance industry. The legislation aimed tomend the state's broken no-fault, PIP system, which has beenplagued by abuse and fraud. Of the law's many provisions is a banof PIP benefits for acupuncturists and massage facilities, and arequirement that claimants seek treatment within 14 days of anaccident from a hospital or physician.

But Leon County Judge Terry Lewis ruled these provisions violatethe Florida Constitution. He says these parts of the law“violate the right of the people to have access to the courts toseek redress for their injuries.”

In his opinion, Lewis says Florida lawmakers have had ahistory of straying from “libertarian principles of individualliberty and personal responsibility,” and, in some cases, have“replaced a pure free market approach with a government-controlledsystem (such as the no-fault auto insurance system) in order toaddress a perceived problem.”

The judge goes on to say the revised law breaks through thelimits of constitutionality. Past challenges of no-fault, PIPreform from the time it was adopted in 1971 have failed, but thesespecific provisions in the latest revision “severely limits whatcan be recovered under the policy, i.e., what is specificallyexcluded,” says Lewis, and they give no reasonable alternative tothe right afforded to citizens under the constitution.

“This is the first time a court has called into question theconstitutionality of the new PIP statute,” says attorney Michael J.McQuaide of law firm Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman andGoggin. “This ruling opens the door to a Florida Supreme Courtreview of the constitutionality of the new statute.”

The group of acupuncturists, massage therapists andchiropractors failed to convince a state district court judge onthe same merits. In January Judge Richard Lazzara, in the U.S.District Court in the Middle District of Florida, denied the group an injunction.

Gov. Scott says the PIP reforms he signed into law last May “areworking to lower insurance costs for Florida families and we willcontinue to fight special interest groups to keep them inplace.”