Volume 11

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 570a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Where relevant market requires multiplier to obtain competent counsel and likelihood of success at outset was about even, 1.5 multiplier is appropriate — Costs, expert witness fee, and prejudgment interest awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 506a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Torts — Automobile accident — Injured passenger’s action against owner of vehicle which was not covered by personal injury protection policy — Timeliness of motion to tax fees — Where judgment and motion to tax fees were filed prior to effective date of rule 1.525, which established bright line requiring that motion to tax fees be filed within 30 days of filing of judgment, motion was only required to be filed within “reasonable time” — Delay of 50 days in filing not unreasonable — Further, defendant waived issue of timeliness not argued before lower tribunal — Prevailing plaintiff — As owner of vehicle not covered by PIP, defendant was personally liable for payment of benefits and had all rights and obligations of an insurer under PIP statute, including liability for award of costs and fees to prevailing plaintiff under section 627.428 — Plaintiff was not required to plead entitlement to attorney’s fees with specificity so long as basis for claim was specifically stated in post judgment motion for fees and costs — Justiciable issues — Where defendant consistently failed to respond to discovery attempts, default was entered due to defendant’s failure to file any response, second default was entered due to defendant’s failure to appear at mediation conference, and defendant’s repeated failure to appear for trial resulted in entry of final judgments in favor of plaintiff, there is sufficient evidence to support award of fees under section 57.105 — Contingency risk multiplier — No abuse of discretion in applying multiplier of 1.25 where application of multiplier was necessary to obtain counsel for impoverished plaintiff without stable residency, and chances of success were more likely than not at outset when neither plaintiff nor his counsel was aware that defendant did not have insurance

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 483b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Amount — Fees are awarded for 61.5 hours at an hourly rate of $325 — Contingency risk multiplier — Where medical provider’s counsel undertook representation pursuant to pure contingency fee agreement, market in jurisdiction requires multiplier to obtain competent counsel in like cases, and provider’s chances of success at outset were more likely than not, multiplier of 1.25 is appropriate — Costs, prejudgment interest, and expert witness fee awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 471a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Lodestar fee is calculated for 21 hours at hourly rate of $300 — Costs, expert witness fee, and prejudgment interest awarded — Contingency risk multiplier — Multiplier is not necessary where provider’s attorney has not shown that relevant market requires contingency fee multiplier to obtain competent counsel since provider is active medical practice with enough assigned benefit cases to justify long-standing retainer agreement with three law firms for nearly a year before suit and it has not been shown that provider cannot afford counsel on noncontingent basis, and attorney has not shown inability to mitigate risk of nonpayment in any way since availability of fees under section 627.428 mitigated against risk of nonpayment and risk of nonpayment in one case is mitigated by retention on high volume of cases for provider

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 461b

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Lodestar fee for medical provider’s counsel is calculated for 30 hours at hourly rate of $300 and .5 hours at hourly rate of $225 for counsel’s associate — Costs and expert witness fee awarded — Contingency risk multiplier — Multiplier is not necessary where provider’s attorney has not shown that relevant market requires contingency fee multiplier to obtain competent counsel since provider is active medical practice with enough assigned benefit cases to justify long-standing retainer agreement with three law firms for nine months before suit and it has not been shown that provider cannot afford counsel on noncontingent basis, and attorney has not shown inability to mitigate risk of nonpayment in any way since availability of fees under section 627.428 mitigated against risk of nonpayment and risk of nonpayment in one case is mitigated by retention on high volume of cases for provider

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 456a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Amount — Pursuant to stipulation, medical provider’s counsel is awarded attorney’s fees for 23 hours of work at hourly rate of $237.50 — Contingency risk multiplier — Contrary to argument that local market does not require multiplier to obtain competent counsel, court finds that plaintiffs have no choice but to obtain counsel with contingency multiplier because all plaintiff’s attorneys have such an arrangement, and good plaintiff’s attorneys could not have become competent and stayed in field without potential of multiplier — Where likelihood of success in case involving uninsured passenger injured in vehicle driven by uninsured driver was unlikely, counsel was precluded from taking other cases by fact that lawyers cannot work on two cases at same time, counsel obtained 94% of outstanding medical bills, and case was difficult due to language barrier with claimant, multiplier of 2.0 is applied — Costs, prejudgment interest, and expert witness fees awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 371a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Prevailing party — Amount — Fees awarded for 20.5 hours at hourly rate of $325.00 — Contingency risk multiplier — Where provider/assignee’s attorney undertook representation pursuant to pure contingency fee agreement, market in jurisdiction requires contingency risk multiplier to obtain competent counsel in cases like this one, and provider’s chances of success at outset were approximately even, multiplier of 1.5 is appropriate — Expert witness fee, costs, and prejudgment interest awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 364d

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Contingency risk multiplier

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 364c

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Contingency risk multiplier

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 364b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Contingency risk multiplier