Miami and Key West Partner David Caballero discusses changes in auto negligence and premises liability filings, trial activity and court case management following Florida’s 2023 tort reform.
Florida’s civil litigation environment continues to evolve three years after the state enacted significant tort reform legislation, with personal injury filings rising again across South Florida and courts operating under increasingly structured case-management requirements.
An August 20, 2026, Law.com report examining rising personal injury filings in South Florida looked at attorney growth and case volume from both sides of the litigation bar, including a large national Plaintiff/personal injury firm and Cole, Scott & Kissane, Florida’s largest litigation defense firm. The article included perspective from CSK Miami and Key West Partner David Caballero on changes he is seeing in case volume, trial activity and the management of civil dockets throughout Florida.
Personal Injury Filings Continue to Shift
Florida’s 2023 tort reform legislation reduced the statute of limitations for general negligence actions from four years to two years. The change was followed by a significant surge in filings, with more than 280,000 new cases initiated through Florida’s E-Portal Filing System within the first three weeks after the legislation took effect.
The filing pattern that followed has not been linear. According to Florida court statistics cited by Law.com, auto negligence filings in Miami-Dade declined from 10,900 between June 2022 and June 2023 to 4,938 during the following 12-month period, before increasing again to 8,073 the next year. Similar trends were reported in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Caballero characterized the pattern as “up, down, up,” noting that the period immediately following tort reform was marked by substantial attention to cases already pending in Florida courts. By 2026, he observed that filings appeared to be returning to a steadier flow as courts worked through those earlier dockets.
From the defense perspective, Caballero has seen particularly noticeable increases in automobile negligence and premises liability matters.
More Cases Are Moving Toward Trial
The changing filing environment has also coincided with increased trial activity.
Caballero noted that CSK attorneys are trying cases throughout Florida with greater frequency than before the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 tort reform legislation. He attributed that change in part to increased case volume and more structured deadlines governing the progression of civil matters.
Florida’s newer case-management requirements, which took effect in 2025, emphasize defined deadlines, adherence to those deadlines and continued progress toward resolution. Caballero noted that these requirements have helped courts address dockets that became heavily populated with personal injury matters following the surge of filings surrounding tort reform.
For insurers, claims professionals and businesses defending matters in Florida, these procedural changes reinforce the importance of early case assessment, familiarity with court-imposed deadlines and a clear litigation strategy from the outset.
Population Growth Adds Another Layer
Legislative and procedural changes are not the only factors affecting Florida’s litigation environment.
Caballero also pointed to the state’s substantial population growth, particularly in Florida’s major metropolitan areas, as a practical contributor to increased claim and case volume. As Florida’s population has grown, so too have the number of vehicles on its roads and the number of people visiting businesses and other properties, creating additional opportunities for automobile negligence and premises liability claims.
That combination of population growth, evolving filing patterns, greater trial activity and more structured court deadlines reflects the complexity of managing litigation exposure in Florida today.
For insurers, claims professionals and businesses operating throughout the state, understanding how these trends are developing within Florida’s courts can be an important part of evaluating claims, establishing litigation strategy and anticipating how matters may progress from filing through resolution.
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