Volume 10

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 269a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Prevailing medical provider — Contingency risk multiplier of 1.5 is appropriate where likelihood of success was even at outset of case — Expert witness fees and costs awarded

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 64a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Reasonable hourly rate and reasonable number of hours determined, including hours spent litigating motion to disqualify medical provider’s counsel — Contingency risk multiplier of 2 is appropriate where chance of success was even at time case was initiated

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 63b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Reasonable hourly rate and reasonable number of hours determined, including hours spent litigating motion to disqualify medical provider’s counsel — Contingency risk multiplier of 2 is appropriate where chance of success was even at time case was initiated

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 63a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Reasonable hourly rate and reasonable number of hours expended determined — Medical provider is entitled to payment for time spent litigating motion to disqualify counsel withdrawn on day of hearing — Contingency risk multiplier — Medical provider is entitled to contingency risk multiplier of 1.50

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 62b

Attorney’s fees — Justiciable issues — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees awarded pursuant to section 57.105 for time spent on petition for writ of certiorari and disqualification — Application of contingency risk multiplier of 2 is warranted

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 368b

Insurance — Attorney’s fees — Contempt — Court, sua sponte, finds insurer in contempt where counsel for insurer failed to comply prior to attorney’s fees hearing with prehearing order requiring insurer to respond in writing to each item of fees and costs requested by insured within ten days of receipt of time records — Insurer and counsel are ordered to pay insured’s attorney’s fees and expert witness fees necessitated by failure to comply with order — Insurer is ordered to comply with prehearing order or be subject to additional sanctions and possible default on motion to tax fees and costs

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 533a

Insurance — Attorney’s fees — Interest — Post-suit payment of medical bill is confession of judgment which waived any potential defenses that insurer could have asserted — Summary judgment granted in favor of plaintiff as to payment of the bill and entitlement to interest on late payment, attorney’s fees, and costs — Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment denied as to insurer’s termination of chiropractic benefits following compulsory medical examination pending additional discovery and inventory of record evidence

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 478a

NOT FINAL VERSION OF OPINION
Subsequent Changes at 10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 679a

Insurance — No error in denying insurer’s motion for summary judgment where there remained disputed issues of material fact — Trial court’s failure to consider affidavit of insurance representative submitted by insurer in support of its motion for summary judgment, although technical error, was harmless where insurer confessed judgment on only remaining claim — Attorney’s fees — Insurer’s motion for appellate fees is denied — Even if insurer were prevailing party, motion for fees was tardy, as was reply brief with which motion was filed

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 959a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Appeals — Consolidated appeals by insurer and insured — Jurisdiction — Trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter amended final judgments after notice of appeal of original final judgments was timely filed where there was no request to appellate court to transfer or relinquish jurisdiction to trial court to amend original final judgments, and there was no motion for rehearing or motion to amend final judgments pending at time appeal was filed — Appellate court will consider only original final judgments — Insurer’s appeal — Contingency risk multiplier — Where insurer challenged insured’s entitlement to multiplier in its initial brief and then acknowledged in reply brief prior admission that insured was entitled to multiplier but for first time challenged amount of multipliers awarded, appellate court declines to consider argument disputing range of multipliers awarded — Appellate fees — Prevailing insured is entitled to award of attorney’s fees under sections 627.428 and 627.736(8) — Justiciable issues — Despite fact that insurer’s argument that trial court’s conclusions that insured’s attorneys were entitled to multipliers is not supported by record is itself not supported by record, appeal was not frivolous when filed in absence of authority establishing exact threshold of evidence required to support award of multiplier — However, appeal became frivolous after insurer conceded prior admission that insured’s attorneys were entitled to multipliers — Fees awarded from date of reply brief — Motion for award of attorney’s fees based on bad faith of insurer in withholding payment of undisputed lodestar fees, interest, and costs is denied where insured fails to identify what services were provided and types of fees he incurred as result of alleged misconduct — Insured’s appeal and cross-appeal — Costs — No abuse of discretion in failure to award start up costs in one of five suits filed by insured when additional medical expenses and bills became due subsequent to filing of initial suit where insured fails to identify any record evidence reflecting that start up costs were incurred and reasonably necessary, and insurer disputed start up costs in all suits subsequent to initial suit — Discovery — Failure to comply — No error in denial of motion to tax supplemental fees and costs incurred due to insurer’s failure to make admissions as denial pertains to last three cases filed, in which there is no evidence of requests for admissions — No abuse of discretion in denial of motion to tax supplemental fees and costs as it pertains to first three cases filed where, although insurer denied market required multiplier and that attorneys were unable to mitigate risk of nonpayment, it admitted insured’s attorneys were entitled to multiplier and that time spent by attorneys was reasonable and necessary — Insured is not entitled to supplemental fees and costs for insurer’s failure to admit that hourly rates were reasonable where hourly rates were not hotly contested and central issues of case, and there is no evidence that insurer’s denial of reasonableness of rates was made in bad faith or that fact was known with certainty at time admissions were requested — Orders denying supplemental fees and costs are affirmed despite trial court’s failure to make findings of fact in support of denials and absence of transcript of hearing showing oral findings where record supports trial court’s denials — Insured’s request for appellate fees pertaining to his appeal is denied where, because insured’s request for supplemental fees and costs was made as a discovery sanction, it is not claim under insurance policy within scope of section 627.428

10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 81a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Appellate fees