Florida Statute 627.4137 gives a claimant the right to force an insurer to reveal what liability coverage exists before litigation deepens. Within 30 days of receiving a written request, any insurer that provides or may provide liability coverage for the claim must deliver a sworn statement identifying the insurer, every named insured, the coverage limits, any policy or coverage defenses it reasonably believes it can raise, and a full copy of the policy. The statement has to be signed under oath by a corporate officer or by the insurer’s claims manager or superintendent.
What the Sworn Statement Must Contain
The disclosure covers every known liability policy that might respond to the claim, including excess and umbrella layers. Five items are required:
- The name of the insurer.
- The name of each insured.
- The limits of the liability coverage.
- A statement of any policy or coverage defense the insurer reasonably believes is available at the time of disclosure.
- A copy of the policy itself, with terms, conditions, and exclusions.
A summary letter or an email from an adjuster does not satisfy the statute. The information must come as a statement under oath from a corporate officer, claims manager, or claims superintendent, which carries the same exposure as any other sworn statement.
How to Make the Request
Either the claimant or the claimant’s attorney can trigger the statute with a written request. The request may be sent to the insured party, the insured’s insurance agent, or the insurer directly. There is no required form, but citing Section 627.4137 in the letter removes any doubt about what is being demanded and when the response is due.
If the request goes to the insured or the agent instead of the insurer, the agent has a separate duty. The agent must disclose the name and coverage of each known insurer to the claimant and forward the request on to every affected insurer.
One delivery rule is specified in the statute itself: when the party you are pursuing is a self-insured corporation, the request must go by certified mail to the corporation’s registered agent.
The 30-Day Clock
The insurer has 30 days from the day it receives the written request to produce the sworn statement. When the request travels through an agent, the clock starts when the insurer receives the forwarded request, not when the claimant first mailed the original letter. Thirty days is a ceiling. Many insurers respond sooner because a slow or incomplete response becomes a problem for them later in the case.
The Duty to Update
Disclosure is not a one-time event. Under subsection (2), the insurer must amend its sworn statement immediately if it discovers facts that change what it previously provided. That covers newly identified policies, additional insureds, changes to a named insured, and coverage defenses that surface after the initial response. No second request from the claimant is required to trigger the update.
Which Policies It Reaches
The statute applies to liability insurance. That includes auto liability, commercial general liability, professional liability, and the excess and umbrella policies that sit above primary coverage. The explicit reach into excess and umbrella layers matters in serious injury claims, where those layers often hold the largest pool of available money.
It does not reach health insurance, life insurance, or property-only coverage. On a homeowners policy, for example, Section 627.4137 covers the liability portion, not the property coverage for the homeowner’s own losses.
What Happens if the Insurer Doesn’t Comply
Section 627.4137 does not create a standalone cause of action. You cannot sue an insurer for damages based only on a violation of the disclosure statute. The consequences show up inside existing litigation: courts can impose discovery sanctions, exclude evidence the insurer wanted to use, draw adverse inferences, or, in extreme cases, strike pleadings.
A refusal to disclose can also feed a bad faith action under Florida Statute 624.155. Section 627.4137 is not itself a listed trigger for that action, but an insurer’s refusal to provide basic policy information can support the argument that the insurer failed to act fairly and honestly toward the claimant. A 624.155 action requires 60 days’ written notice to the insurer and to the Florida Department of Financial Services describing the specific violation before suit is filed.
Why the Disclosure Matters
Coverage information changes settlement math on both sides. A claimant with $500,000 in damages who learns the at-fault party carries a $100,000 policy with no umbrella can decide quickly whether to press for policy limits or look to the defendant’s personal assets. Early notice of coverage defenses lets the claimant investigate those arguments while the case is still shaping, instead of meeting them for the first time in discovery.
That is why a 627.4137 letter is often one of the first steps in a Florida liability claim. The response, its timing, and its completeness reveal how the insurer intends to handle the rest of the file.