When the state legislature finally finds itself face-to-facewith an issue such as whether to re-enact or rewrite Florida'sautomobile personal injury protection (PIP) law, it is with thefull knowledge that there will be no easy path to a solution. Amongother things, lawmakers know they will be confronted by arelentless full court press on the part of the insurance industry,health care providers, and the trial bar, all of which arededicated to either rewriting the law in their favor or preservingthe advantages afforded them by retaining the status quo. Lawmakersalso know they can only duck these issues for so long given theshort length of the 60-day session. Still, as the legislativesession opened, Senate lawmakers signaled they were in no hurry totackle the more contentious PIP issues as they executed atime-tested legislative sidestep onto firmer political ground bylaunching a public battle against fraud.

Background

Looking back, there are probably a large number of lawmakers whoregret they supported placing a provision in a 2003 auto PIP bill,which calls for the law to sunset in 2007 unless reenacted by thelegislature this year. And already a number of lawmakers are goingon record as saying they will only support repealing the sunsetprovision. Senate Banking and Insurance Vice Chair Steven Gellar(D-Hallandale Beach) made it clear at the committee's first meetingwhere he stood. “It is my recommendation that we made major changesin 2003 that have not yet made their way through the system andtherefore we should reenact the PIP law,” he said.