Florida’s 2nd Circuit Court in Leon County cracked open the logjam and said DOAH can restart more than 400 Citizens Property Insurance arbitration cases that froze under an August injunction.
The earlier order, from a separate circuit judge, cast a wide net over state statutes. Maybe too wide.
Leon County’s ruling said the injunction stretched the law beyond its limits. It also stressed that Citizens has clear statutory authority to run disputes through DOAH, and that DOAH bears responsibility for managing those hearings. The court sounded almost impatient with how sweeping the prior order felt.
Everything kicked off in July after policyholder Elmer Lombana reported a loss. He didn’t ask the court to resolve the claim itself. He instead questioned whether Citizens’ arbitration clause tripped over constitutional rights, including access to courts and basic due process.
A neighboring case, lodged by the same attorney, lobbed a broader constitutional challenge. That one triggered the 13th Circuit’s emergency injunction that banned DOAH arbitration altogether, at least for a moment.
Citizens tried to get things going again. On Oct. 14, the insurer filed to force DOAH to restart arbitration for disputes tied to its policies. Lombana wasn’t named directly but got served with the petition anyway. He shot back with a motion to dismiss.
The 2nd Circuit pointed to the controlling statute, which lets Citizens use DOAH proceedings to help resolve claims. The only mention of arbitration in that statute is an exclusion aimed at private property insurers. Lawmakers put the statute in place in 2023, and Citizens began inserting DOAH arbitration clauses soon after.
Florida law leans heavily toward arbitration, and the court order said the system gives parties meaningful protections.
Most judges around the state have agreed and kept Citizens cases in DOAH even while the injunction lingered. Citizens noted that no other court has echoed the 13th Circuit’s ban.
Citizens keeps backing DOAH arbitration because the process usually wraps in about 90 days. State courts often drag to nearly two years. That speed trims legal bills for both sides, according to the company, and maybe keeps tempers cooler.
Even as arbitration restarts around the state, a political wrinkle popped up. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat, wants answers on how the DOAH process got built into law and what exactly shaped its creation. The questions linger, and the paperwork… well, it keeps stacking.
