On August 7, 2026, WPTV investigative reporter Kate Hussey reported that the Florida Supreme Court has agreed to take up the question Florida policyholder attorneys have been arguing for three years: is Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s mandatory arbitration program constitutional?

For the hundreds of thousands of Florida homeowners insured by Citizens, this may be the most consequential property insurance case the Court has accepted in a decade. It is not about the value of any one roof or any one water loss. It is about whether a Florida homeowner who disagrees with the state-backed insurer can ever put that disagreement in front of a jury.

What the arbitration program actually is

Section 627.351(6)(ll), Florida Statutes — created by House Bill 799 in 2023 — authorizes Citizens to use policy forms that route claim disputes to the Division of Administrative Hearings rather than to circuit court. Under that framework, disputes over coverage, scope, and amount are decided by a single administrative law judge.

What that means in practice:

• No jury. One administrative law judge decides the facts and the law.
• Compressed timelines and limited process. Discovery and motion practice are far narrower than in circuit court.
• Thin judicial review. The avenues for challenging an adverse outcome are extremely limited compared to a civil judgment.

Then there is the fact that drove WPTV’s reporting: documents the station obtained show the administrative law judges deciding these cases are paid through contracts funded by Citizens. WPTV’s review of one year of final hearing decisions found that judges ruled in Citizens’ favor in 99 percent of the cases examined. As one insurance attorney interviewed for the report put it, the arrangement is a textbook example of a thumb on the scale — and he is not aware of anything comparable anywhere else in the country.

The constitutional question

Three provisions of the Florida Constitution are in play. Article I, Section 21 guarantees access to the courts. Article I, Section 22 preserves the right to trial by jury. And due process requires, at minimum, a genuinely neutral decisionmaker.

The fight escalated in May 2026, when Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch refused to compel a Citizens policyholder into arbitration, writing that Citizens policyholders — and Floridians generally — cannot help but ask why they must be stripped of the right to trial by jury as a condition of insuring their homes. Citizens appealed. The Supreme Court has now agreed to hear it.

Florida’s trial courts have not spoken with one voice. A Hillsborough County judge enjoined the program in 2025 as likely unconstitutional. A Leon County judge reached the opposite conclusion in March 2026, upholding the endorsement against access-to-courts, equal protection, and due process challenges. Citizens, for its part, notes that most trial courts to consider the issue have upheld the process, says arbitration resolves disputes faster and saves legal costs on both sides, and says it welcomes the Supreme Court’s review.

Why this reaches well beyond Citizens

Florida lawmakers have already considered legislation that would allow private property insurers to require similar arbitration. A separate bill that would have restored the jury-trial option for Citizens insureds died in the 2026 session.

Put that alongside the rest of the post-reform landscape. Section 627.428 — the one-way attorney fee statute that made it economically feasible for an ordinary homeowner to challenge a wrongful denial — was eliminated by SB 2-A. Claim reporting deadlines under section 627.70132 were shortened to one year for new and reopened claims and 18 months for supplemental claims. Add an arbitration forum funded by the insurer on the other side of the case, extended to the private market, and the practical leverage available to a Florida homeowner narrows to almost nothing. One attorney quoted in the WPTV report framed the endpoint bluntly: at that stage, there would be little reason to carry property insurance at all, because you could never meaningfully argue with your insurance company.

What either outcome could mean

If the Court strikes the program down, it raises immediate questions for three groups: homeowners with pending DOAH arbitrations, homeowners whose claims are frozen in the process, and homeowners who already received an award. The WPTV report describes a West Palm Beach homeowner whose roughly $32,000 water damage claim was denied, taken to arbitration, and resolved with an award of nothing. Her motion to vacate — arguing the administrative law judge failed to remain neutral, based on the contracts WPTV uncovered — was denied on August 4 in an order that gave no reasoning.

If the Court upholds it, DOAH becomes the settled forum for Citizens disputes, and the entire strategy shifts. When review is thin, the record built at the hearing level is the only record that will ever matter. Documentation, expert work, and preservation of objections have to happen early, because there is no meaningful second bite.

What Citizens policyholders should do right now

1. Read your endorsement and your renewal declarations. Arbitration language has been added and expanded at renewal. Know what your policy says before you have a claim, not after.
2. Preserve every objection. Constitutional and procedural objections that are not raised and preserved can be treated as waived. Florida’s appellate courts have already been unsympathetic to late-raised waiver theories.
3. Protect your statutory deadlines regardless. The constitutional litigation does not pause section 627.70132. One year for a new or reopened claim; 18 months for a supplemental claim. Those clocks run no matter what the Supreme Court does.
4. Build the file as if you are trying the case tomorrow. Dated photographs, contemporaneous reports, weather data, and a qualified estimate. Compressed schedules punish claimants who start late.
5. Get counsel involved before you are compelled to arbitrate. The decisions made in the first weeks of a disputed Citizens claim frequently determine the forum and the outcome.

If Citizens denied, underpaid, or arbitrated your claim

Cohen Law Group represents Florida policyholders — never insurance companies — in first-party property insurance disputes statewide. If Citizens denied your claim, pushed you into a DOAH proceeding, or handed you an award that does not begin to cover your loss, we will review your policy, your endorsement, and your claim file at no cost to you.

We work on a contingency-fee basis. You pay no attorney’s fee unless we recover for you.

Call Cohen Law Group at (407) 478-4878 or visit itsaboutjustice.law to speak with our team.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. The litigation described here is ongoing and the law may change; statutes, policy language, and coverage vary by policy and by circumstance. You should consult a licensed Florida attorney regarding the specific facts of your claim. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Cohen Law Group | 350 North Lake Destiny Road, Maitland, FL 32751 | Serving policyholders throughout Florida, including Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Sarasota, Naples, Fort Myers, Ocala, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Lakeland, Port St. Lucie, Vero Beach, Gainesville, Tallahassee, and Pensacola.

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