If you spend any amount of time in Florida, one thing jumps out almost immediately: lawyer ads everywhere. On TV. On billboards. On the sides of buses. “Been in a car accident? Call now.” It’s hard to drive five minutes without being reminded that someone is ready to sue on your behalf.
That observation stuck with me when I started comparing car insurance premiums between Florida and Minnesota — and wow, was I surprised at just how different the costs are.
Even with similar cars, clean driving records, and comparable coverage, Florida insurance can cost dramatically more. ChatGPT says it’s the highest in the nation, with the difference $500-$1,500, or 25-60% higher per car.
At first glance, that seems odd. Minnesota has snow, ice, and winter driving chaos for half the year. Florida mostly has sunshine and palm trees. What gives?
A big part of the answer is litigation. Florida has apparently built a legal and insurance environment where lawsuits are common, encouraged, and historically low-risk for attorneys. When accidents happen, disputes escalate quickly, legal costs pile up, and insurers price that risk straight into premiums.
Minnesota, by contrast, runs a quieter, more restrained system. Each party is responsible for their own attorney’s fees. That means fewer lawsuits, lower legal overhead, and more predictable. Insurers don’t need as much padding in their pricing. Less drama, lower premiums.
The contrast between the states is a reminder that state-controlled legal systems matter. When a system makes it easy and profitable to escalate conflict, costs rise for everyone. When a system quietly pushes people toward resolution instead, prices tend to stay lower.
How litigious are car accidents in your state? How is that reflected in prices?
Image: Pixabay
MrFireStation 
This is the result of State Legislators receiving too many ‘contributions’ AKA bribes from the Plaintiff’s Bar. The People’s Republic of California also has big problems with illegal alien drivers who of course do not have auto insurance. If you hit them, they find a personal injury attorney and try to sue for having a paid summer vacation. If they cause the accident, your insurance still pays. There are also problems with certain populations who commit fraud by staging accidents to try to make false claims. I have ironically been in four accidents in my Ford E350 Van where the other party hit me and off course two of them tried to claim I hit them. The only damage that I have had over the course of four hits was one passenger side mirror that I replaced myself for $40. Three of the four vehicles that hit me were trashed.
A little over 30 years ago, California unsuccessfully tried to pass a true No-Fault Insurance Proposition. The radio commercials in favor of passing the Proposition described how illegals benefit from insurance when you hit them, and your insurance still pays when they hit you. No-Fault Insurance would save money by not paying out to those who don’t buy insurance.
The Plaintiff’s Bar ran fake advertising about how there would be no financial recovery or consequences if a drunk hits you. The best endorsement for passage I heard was once when I was walking through a courthouse where a lot of family law attorneys appeared. I overhead two family law attorneys bitching about how the proposition would cause a lot of personal injury attorneys to have to switch to family law. Any law the attorneys hate is a good law.
I would like to end by asking, what do you have when there are a thousand attorney’s floating face down in the Santa Monica Bay? A good start.
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