What it is
A Civil Remedy Notice — CRN — is a formal notice filed with the Florida Department of Financial Services alleging that an insurer violated the law in handling a claim. It is required by Fla. Stat. §624.155(3)(a): before anyone can bring a statutory bad-faith action against an insurer, the department and the insurer must have been given 60 days’ written notice.
That 60 days is a cure period. Under §624.155(3)(c), no action lies if within those 60 days the insurer pays the damages or corrects the circumstances that gave rise to the violation. In plain terms: the notice tells the insurer exactly what it did wrong and gives it two months to fix it before the courthouse opens.
What the notice must contain
§624.155(3)(b) is specific. The notice must be on a form provided by the department and must state:
- The statutory provision, including the specific language of the statute, the insurer allegedly violated
- The facts and circumstances giving rise to the violation
- The name of any individual involved in the violation
- Reference to the specific policy language relevant to the violation, if any
- A statement that the notice is given in order to perfect the right to pursue the civil remedy authorised by the section
Item 1 is where most notices are won or lost. Quoting the statute you say was violated is not optional, and a notice that gestures vaguely at bad conduct does not perfect anything.
Where to file one, and where to read the others
DFS runs the filing and search system at apps.fldfs.com/CivilRemedy. Filings are public records, viewable without an account. That is what makes the dataset on this site possible.
It also means the reverse is true: anything entered on the form is public. Do not put a Social Security number or anything else you would not publish into a CRN.
What 60,620 filings actually allege
We aggregated every residential property CRN filed with Florida DFS from 2022 through 2026. A single filing usually cites more than one reason, so these do not sum to 100%.
| Reason cited | Filings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Unfair Trade Practice | 53,913 | 89% |
| Claim Delay | 51,666 | 85% |
| Unsatisfactory Settlement Offer | 40,895 | 67% |
| Claim Denial | 35,762 | 59% |
| Non-renewal | 802 | 1% |
The pattern is consistent across four years: the dominant complaints are not exotic. They are delay, an offer the policyholder considered too low, and outright denial. 60,517 of the 60,620 filings cite §624.155 itself.
Before you file one
- Have the record first. A CRN requires you to name the provision, the facts, and the relevant policy language. That is a documentation exercise before it is a legal one — which is the part ClaimRestored is built to do.
- Understand what the 60 days buys. A cured violation ends the bad-faith exposure. Many notices produce payment inside the window, which is the point of the statute.
- This is a legal filing. Perfecting a statutory bad-faith claim is a job for a licensed Florida attorney. We are not a law firm and not a licensed public adjuster; we do not file CRNs and we do not advise on whether you should.