A Florida Jury Is Not Allowed To Know About Insurance
Michael Babboni
Law
Suppose you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, especially if it’s a car accident. In that case, seeking compensation for those injuries is not technically directed at the person responsible. When trying to settle the finances of a car accident, the money that will change hands comes not from the individuals but the insurance companies that the involved parties have policies with.In other words, if you’re injured in a car accident, and the other driver is at fault, and even has At-Fault insurance, then the insurance company will pay for any medical treatment, lost wages, or other expenses incurred. However, things change if there’s a disagreement about who’s at fault, and things go to court.
Even though you’re trying to get the other driver’s insurance company to pay for damages, in court, in front of a jury, you will appear to be trying to get money from the driver, not the driver’s insurance company.
Insurance Is Forbidden
Florida has a law known as the “nonjoinder statute.” In effect, this law forbids any mention of the word “insurance” or implying that a person being sued for personal injury even has an insurance policy. In court, this translates to a lawyer pretending that a negligent driver who has caused an injury will be personally required to pay for the damages, and the person has no insurance coverage.
Of course, everyone knows that drivers have insurance coverage, but the law requires that no mention of insurance coverage—especially coverage limits—be disclosed to the jury. This is mainly done to protect the insurance companies from an “easy verdict” of jurors finding in favor of the plaintiff.
The thinking behind the law is that knowledge of insurance coverage—especially in high amounts—biases a jury against an impartial decision. If a jury knows that a business with lots of money is footing the bill, this may prejudice them to favor the plaintiff because they know the big business can easily afford it.
As a result of the nonjoinder statute, the insurance company now becomes a “silent partner” in a personal injury trial. Even though they will have to pay out money should the plaintiff win the case, at no point in the trial can their insurance policy or the amounts involved be made available to the jury. The jury must act as if a person is being sued.
Verdicts & Amounts
It is only after a jury has come to a decision and award an amount to the plaintiff that the insurance policy and its coverage limits can be disclosed. In some rare cases, juries have awarded amounts to a plaintiff that actually runs higher than what insurance coverage agrees to cover. In those rare instances, the insurance company must still pay the maximum amount, and the defendant must then pay out the remainder from personal finances.
It is sometimes also possible to secure more money from an insurance company if they acted in “bad faith.” This means they knowingly denied a valid claim, even though all the requirements were met, and they had no legal reason to do so. If the insurance company refused to negotiate in earlier periods and you’ve now won a lawsuit with the implication that bad faith negotiating also took place that required taking the matter to court, that bad faith tactic can now be used as part of an additional lawsuit aimed not at the at-fault individual, but this time at the insurance company itself.
Remember that just because an insurance company makes a decision, it’s not always the right or final judgment. Talk to a personal injury attorney about your options.