HB 459 Would Eliminate Access to the Courts for Policyholders, A Modern Betrayal of the Principles Our Forefathers Considered Sacred

When Disaster Strikes, the Last Thing You Should Lose Is Your Voice

Picture the days after a devastating storm, the kind Floridians know too well. Your neighborhood is unrecognizable. Splintered trees lie like matchsticks across driveways. Shingles and debris cover lawns. Your children’s bedrooms are soaked, their belongings ruined. You walk through your home with a knot in your chest, trying to understand how to put life back together.

But amid the chaos, there is one thing you are certain of: you paid your premiums. You did everything right. You trusted that your insurance company would help you rebuild your home and your life. And beneath that expectation, you relied on something deeper,  the fundamental right our forefathers guaranteed you, the right to seek justice in a real court when a powerful entity refuses to do what is right.

Weeks turn into months. The insurer still has not made a decision. Or they ask for more documentation. Or they send out multiple adjusters, each with a different opinion.

Then comes the final blow. You’re told your claim must go through a government-run process you’ve never heard of, in front of judges you did not elect, governed by rules that do not resemble a courtroom, costing money you do not have, and permanently stripping you of your right to ever present your case to a jury.

That is the world Florida House Bill 459 creates, and it is far more dangerous than most Floridians realize.

A Bill Filed at the Worst Possible Time by a Representative Who Should Know Better

On November 18, 2025, Rep. Randy Maggard of District 54 filed HB 459. The timing could not be more striking. He was elected in 2022 and is running for re-election in 2026.  During this time, his district has spent the past year repairing homes and lives after repeated storms, with families living under blue tarps, struggling with lowball estimates, battling mold, and pleading for basic fairness from their insurance companies.

If anyone should understand the suffering inflicted when insurers delay, deny, or underpay valid claims, it is a representative from a hurricane-ravaged district.

Yet Rep. Maggard chose this moment, while his own constituents remain displaced and financially vulnerable, to introduce a bill that strips them of their most fundamental legal protections. And what makes his sponsorship even more troubling is this unavoidable truth: HB 459 does not simply modify procedure; it removes a constitutional right. It eliminates policyholders’ access to courts and juries, rights our founders viewed as essential to preventing abuses of power.

For those familiar with Rep. Maggard’s voting record, this move is not surprising. He has consistently sided with the insurance lobby, supporting legislation that shields insurers from accountability while diminishing the rights of the very policyholders he is supposed to represent.

HB 459 is the most extreme expression of that pattern. It would force policyholders into an administrative arena they never agreed to enter, require them to share in the costs of that process, and eliminate their right to have disputes heard in a real court. For storm-battered families in District 54, this is more than misguided policy; it is a profound betrayal.

When a family loses their home, the one thing they should never lose is their right to justice. HB 459 takes that from them.

DOAH: The Hidden System No Homeowner Ever Agreed To

What makes this bill especially dangerous is that most Floridians have no idea what the Division of Administrative Hearings, known as DOAH, even is. They have never been inside a DOAH courtroom, never watched a DOAH trial, and never studied the administrative rules that govern it.

And why would they? DOAH was never designed for them.

Created in the 1970s, DOAH was intended to resolve disputes between citizens and state agencies, licensing fights, environmental permits, bureaucratic disagreements. These are technical administrative matters, not life-altering insurance claims involving destroyed homes, displaced families, and six-figure repair costs.

DOAH judges are skilled professionals, but they are not civil trial judges. They do not apply the Rules of Civil Procedure or the Evidence Code. There are no juries. Discovery, the process essential to uncovering insurer misconduct, is heavily restricted.

It is a forum built for efficiency, not justice. For expedience, not evidence. For paperwork disputes, not rebuilding homes.

HB 459 would force every property insurance dispute into this administrative venue, even when the homeowner objects, even when the claim is highly complex, even when the insurer created the dispute through delay or denial, and even when the homeowner cannot afford the costs required to participate.

This is not choice. It is coercion.

Why DOAH Is the Wrong Forum for Property Insurance Claims

Property insurance disputes are inherently complex. They involve engineering analysis, construction timelines, mold assessments, structural evaluations, and dense policy language requiring careful interpretation. Above all, they hinge on credibility, whether the insurer or the homeowner is telling the truth.

For centuries, our justice system has relied on juries, groups of ordinary citizens, to hear these disputes and decide what is fair. DOAH removes that safeguard entirely.

Instead of a jury, a single administrative judge decides the case. The rules of evidence are relaxed in ways that give insurers immense procedural advantages. Hearsay is often allowed. Key depositions may be restricted. Insurers cannot be compelled to turn over internal documents the way they can in real courts. And DOAH runs on accelerated timelines that burden policyholders who are already overwhelmed, while insurers with extensive resources exploit the speed to their advantage.

What is lost in this system is the voice of the community. Your neighbors, the people who understand your circumstances and struggles, never hear your story. When your home is destroyed and your family displaced, you should not be forced into an administrative shortcut designed for speed, not truth.

How DOAH Became the Insurance Industry’s Playground

If an insurance company were asked to design the perfect dispute-resolution system, it would look very much like DOAH, and Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has already proven it.

Since early 2024, Citizens have quietly diverted thousands of disputes away from real courts and into DOAH. A ProPublica investigation revealed that Citizens pushed more than 1,500 homeowner disputes into this administrative arena. Of the cases that made it to a final hearing, Citizens won more than 90 percent of the time. In traditional courts, Citizens win only about 55 percent of the time.

Same insurer, same policies, same issues, radically different outcomes depending solely on the forum.

That disparity is no accident.

Homeowners dragged into DOAH are forced into a process they did not choose. They must navigate relaxed evidentiary rules, shortened deadlines, and pay out of pocket for experts and legal help, all while their homes deteriorate. Insurers, meanwhile, control the tempo, the information, and the environment in which the dispute is decided. They understand every procedural shortcut, and the numbers prove how heavily the system tilts in their favor.

HB 459 does not merely tolerate this system. It seeks to expand it statewide. What began as a controversial model for one state-run insurer would become the standard for every property insurance company in Florida.

Imagine a world where the party with the most money, the most attorneys, and the most influence chooses the battlefield, and you have no right to leave it. That is the world this bill creates.

Why Every Floridian Should Be Alarmed, Even Those Who Haven’t Filed a Claim

HB 459 is not simply about administrative procedure. It is about power, who holds it, who loses it, and who benefits from its redistribution.

Once policyholders lose the right to take an insurer to court, the balance of power shifts entirely to insurers. Without juries, the voice of the community is silenced. Without full discovery, misconduct remains hidden. Without subpoena power, key documents and witnesses vanish behind corporate walls. Without public trials, accountability disappears.

This should alarm every Floridian, regardless of political party or personal experience. Hurricanes do not discriminate, and neither do fires, burst pipes, or roof failures. Any family, at any moment, could find themselves in the very position this bill makes dramatically more vulnerable.

If access to the courts can be taken in a single legislative session, what else can follow?

What Floridians Should Demand From Their Elected Officials

As HB 459 advances through the legislature, Floridians deserve to confront their lawmakers with the questions Rep. Maggard failed to ask before filing this bill.

• Why should a policyholder lose the right to a jury trial when an insurer mistreats them?
• Why should a homeowner be forced into a government tribunal they never agreed to?
• Why must someone who paid insurance premiums for years now pay part of the cost of securing the benefits they were promised?
• Why replace independent courts with a system influenced by the very industry it is supposed to check?
• And most importantly, would any elected official be willing to have their own family’s claim decided this way?

If a representative cannot answer these questions clearly and convincingly, they should not support this bill.

A Final Word, The Rights Our Forefathers Fought For Are Worth Protecting

As a lawyer who has spent my career fighting for policyholders, I have seen how essential our courts are when disaster strikes. Courts uncover truth. Courts check power. Courts give ordinary Floridians a voice against institutions far larger than themselves.

Our forefathers understood that without access to the courts, the balance of power shifts away from the people and toward whatever institution wields influence or wealth. That is why they enshrined the right to petition the government, the right to due process, and the right to a jury trial as cornerstones of American justice.

Those rights were not granted lightly. They were earned through revolution, sacrifice, and a belief that every citizen deserves a fair hearing before an impartial court.

When a law like HB 459 strips policyholders of those rights and forces them into a government-controlled tribunal designed to benefit insurers, it is not simply flawed public policy. It is a betrayal of the principles that built this country.

As this bill moves forward, I urge every Floridian to stay alert. Protect your rights. Protect your home. Once access to the courts is taken away, it rarely returns.

If we allow HB 459 to close the courthouse doors now, we will not merely lose a legal remedy. We will surrender a core American freedom that our forefathers fought, bled, and risked everything to secure.

David C. Murray, Esq.
Murray Law Group