Florida statutory bad faith: § 624.155, taken apart.

Why Florida bad faith is a statute, not a tort

In many states, a policyholder who is mistreated by their own insurer can sue for common-law bad faith. Florida is different for first-party claims. Florida courts have generally held there is no common-law first-party bad-faith cause of action. The remedy the Legislature provided is the statutory one, Fla. Stat. § 624.155. That single fact shapes everything below: the elements, the timing, and the paperwork are set by the statute, and missing a step is fatal in a way a flexible common-law standard would not be.

A separate line of law governs third-party (liability) bad faith, where an insurer’s failure to settle exposes its policyholder to an excess judgment. This guide is about the first-party situation most hurricane policyholders face: you filed a claim on your own property policy, and the carrier denied, delayed, or underpaid. The distinctions are technical and consequential. A Florida attorney should confirm which framework fits your facts.

What § 624.155 actually says

Section 624.155 creates a civil action for a person damaged by an insurer that, among other things, does not attempt in good faith to settle a claim when it could and should have done so, or commits one of the unfair claim practices listed in § 626.9541(1)(i). It requires written notice to the insurer and to the Department of Financial Services before suit, and it gives the insurer a window to pay or otherwise cure. Typical statutory framing:

PARAPHRASE · READ THE STATUTE ITSELF A person may bring a civil action against an insurer that fails to settle a claim in good faith when, under the circumstances, it could and should have done so, but only after filing the required Civil Remedy Notice and giving the insurer 60 days to cure.

That is a paraphrase, not the operative language. The exact wording, the list of triggering conduct, and the remedies are in the statute. Read it against your facts, or have counsel do it. The verified link is in sources.

The elements you have to show

A statutory first-party bad-faith case is usually built on a handful of moving parts. Think of them as a checklist a court will run, not a guarantee, and not a substitute for legal advice:

The § 626.9541 predicate

Section 624.155 does a lot of its work by reference: one way to trigger it is an unfair claim settlement practice listed in § 626.9541(1)(i). Those are the specific claim-handling behaviors Florida law calls unfair: misrepresenting policy provisions, failing to act promptly on communications, failing to investigate reasonably, and failing to attempt a good-faith settlement once liability is reasonably clear, among others. The full list, and how it becomes the backbone of a bad-faith case, is in the § 626.9541 guide.

Practical point: a bad-faith case is easier to see when the claim file shows a pattern: repeated missed deadlines, an investigation that ignored obvious evidence, a payment far below a well-documented loss. Whether that pattern meets the statutory standard is a question for the finder of fact, not something any web page can promise.

When the claim accrues

Timing is where first-party bad-faith cases most often stumble. Florida courts have generally treated a determination of coverage and the extent of the loss in the insured’s favor as a predicate to a § 624.155 action, a principle commonly traced to Blanchard v. State Farm (Fla. 1991) and refined in later decisions. In practice, that means the coverage or breach-of-contract fight usually comes first; the bad-faith count is frequently pleaded but held (abated) until the underlying dispute resolves.

The takeaway is sequencing, not despair: build and win the coverage case, preserve the claim file, and file the Civil Remedy Notice at the right time. Get the order wrong and a meritorious bad-faith claim can be dismissed as premature. This is a textbook example of something to run past a licensed Florida attorney rather than time yourself.

What damages it reaches

The reason bad faith matters is that it can reach beyond the four corners of the policy. Where § 624.155 applies, the damages can include the harm caused by the insurer’s conduct (which may exceed the policy limits) together with interest, and court costs and reasonable attorney fees as the statute provides. That is the leverage the statute is designed to create: an insurer that could have paid a covered claim and did not may face exposure larger than the number it disputed.

The specifics (which damages, in what amount, and whether fees are available on your facts) depend on the current statute and how courts are applying it, including after the 2022 reforms below. Treat the figures in any summary, including this one, as general information to verify, not a prediction of your recovery.

The CRN condition precedent

You cannot bring a § 624.155 action without first filing a Civil Remedy Notice of Insurer Violation with the Florida Department of Financial Services and serving it on the insurer. It is a genuine condition precedent, not a formality, and the statute gives the insurer 60 days to pay the damages owed or otherwise cure. If the insurer pays within that window, the bad-faith action is generally cut off (the issue addressed in Talat Enterprises v. Aetna, Fla. 2000).

Because the notice defines the violations and the cure, its contents matter enormously. The full walkthrough (what a CRN must state, how it is filed, and the traps in the 60-day window) is in the Civil Remedy Notice guide.

What the 2022 reforms changed

Florida’s December 2022 special session (SB 2-A) significantly reshaped property-insurance litigation. Among other things, it repealed the one-way attorney-fee statutes that had applied to property claims, and it created a separate presuit notice for property-insurance suits under § 627.70152. That presuit notice is not the same thing as the Civil Remedy Notice; they are distinct requirements with different purposes, and a property case can implicate both.

The reforms are recent, technical, and still being interpreted by courts. How they affect the availability of fees, the mechanics of presuit notice, and the value of a bad-faith claim is precisely the kind of moving target that calls for current legal advice. Everything in this guide is general information drafted as of July 2026, not verified. Confirm the current statute and its application to your claim with a licensed Florida attorney.

Florida bad-faith FAQ

Statutes, deadlines, and cases above are drafted summaries as of July 2026, not verified legal advice. Exceptions apply and your policy and facts control. This page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Confirm current Florida law with a licensed attorney before acting.