Volume 11

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 79b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Offer of judgment — Award of reasonable fees and costs to prevailing insurer was mandatory once entitlement was established under offer of judgment statute — Insureds were unable to show that trial court abused its discretion in awarding fees or failed to consider statutory factors in determining reasonableness of fee award since there was no transcript and no requirement that trial court set forth written findings as to criteria used in determining reasonableness of award

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 466a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Hours reasonably expended — Number of hours claimed is reduced by time spent preparing amended complaints where counsel could have filed original complaint in proper form without need for amendment — Reasonable hourly rate is $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. 510a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Hours expended — Where insurer had already agreed to plaintiff’s entitlement to fees through settlement prior to fee hearing, litigation regarding whether to apply multiplier is litigation pertaining to amount of fees, not time spent litigating entitlement to fees, and trial court erred in including time in fee award

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 938a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Justiciable issues — Where medical provider filed suit against wrong insurer, and despite court order allowing provider to amend complaint to name proper insurer, provider continued to litigate against wrong insurer, defendant insurer is entitled to award of attorney’s fees from date of filing of complaint through date of pre-trial conference at which court granted motion to dismiss — Defendant is not awarded fees from date of pre-trial conference through date of entitlement hearing as defendant is not entitled to fees for litigating amount of fee award

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 140a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees awarded for successful defense against motions for disqualification of law firm representing plaintiffs in consolidated cases where it is implicit in denial of motions for disqualification that law firm did nothing wrong in hiring insurer’s former employee, and time spent contesting the motion was caused by insurer incorrectly asserting conflict that did not exist — No merit to argument that time spent on disqualification issue inured solely to benefit of law firm and not to clients — Fact that law firm may have interest in continued representation, because if disqualified it would not be entitled to any fees under contingency fee arrangements, does not mean that its continued representation does not confer benefit on clients where likelihood of success in cases was less than or even at best, and law firm was one of few firms that consistently prosecuted cases with PPO and Beech Street issues

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 457c

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Provider’s attorney is entitled to compensation for time spent after insurer offered to pay outstanding benefits but before it tendered payment — Costs are awarded for taking deposition of claims adjuster, which was critical to case — Provider’s attorney is awarded attorney’s fees for 24 hours at hourly rate of $225 — Contingency risk multiplier — Where relevant market requires multiplier to obtain competent counsel, provider has pure contingency risk contract with attorney, and likelihood of success was even at outset, multiplier of 1.5 is applied — Expert witness fee, costs, and prejudgment interest awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 586a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Hourly rate — Court rejects claim that higher hourly rate applicable outside community should be awarded due to unavailability of attorneys within community who could handle Beech Street issue, finding that despite absence of district court of appeal ruling on issue any attorney that does PIP work could easily determine the issue from the numerous lower court opinions and no particular expertise is needed to read and analyze statute pertaining to preferred provider insurance plans — Higher hourly rate is awarded for time spent defending against motion to disqualify counsel, which was more complicated and time-intensive than Beech Street issue — Hours expended — Where pleadings and discovery were identical in multiple Beech Street claims, court concludes that no additional time beyond time spent on one case was necessary to conclude all cases — Contingency risk multiplier — Beech Street cases, in which providers seek compensation beyond fee they agreed to accept for services, should not be categorized as public policy enforcement cases since benefit is to provider not consumer, and it is not public policy of state to encourage more costly health care — Cases are more appropriately categorized as contract disputes, and factors to consider in awarding multiplier should be factors used for contract and tort disputes — Where law firm advertised throughout state to obtain providers as clients on Beech Street issue, such that there was no search by provider for competent counsel or financial roadblock to accessing courts, and any risk of nonpayment in particular case was ameliorated by volume of cases handled by firm and opportunity to select venues in which lower courts had already ruled in favor of provider’s position on issue, request for multiplier is denied — Expert witness fee and costs awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 938b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Small claims — Hours reasonably expended — Reasonable amount of time to expend on small claims PIP action not involving novel or complex issues was 56 hours, not 123.6 hours requested by medical provider’s counsel — Requested hourly rate of $300 is rejected; reasonable rate is $175 per hour — Contingency risk multiplier — Where risk of nonpayment was non-existent and success was certain from start of case, and insurer engaged in dilatory maneuvers, multiplier of 1.25 is appropriate — Expert witness fee awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 920a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Medical provider’s attorneys are entitled to compensation for 181.1 hours at $285 per hour and 36.9 hours at $325 per hour — Contingency risk multiplier — Where counsel were employed on pure contingency basis, relevant market required multiplier to obtain competent counsel, counsel was not able to mitigate risk of nonpayment in any way, at outset of case lack of countersignature was novel issue for which law was unsettled at trial level and insurer took hard-line position and displayed manifest recalcitrance throughout matter such that provider had at best 50% or less chance of success at outset, multiplier of 2.0 is applicable — No merit to argument that counsel is not entitled to multiplier because he was not aware of insurer’s hard-line countersignature defense on date he was retained and did not learn of it until insurer filed answer and affirmative defenses — Expert witness fees, costs, and prejudgment interest awarded

11 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 661a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Hours expended — Medical provider’s counsel is not entitled to attorney’s fees for time spent litigating amount of fees — Hourly rates of $300, $275, and $225 are awarded based on attorneys qualifications — Costs, expert witness fee and prejudgment interest awarded — Contingency risk multiplier — Provider has not shown that relevant market required multiplier to obtain competent counsel where evidence shows that there are other attorneys in area who would accept representation without multiplier and that provider’s counsel actively marketed self to providers to secure representation regarding issues in case — Evidence — Hearsay — Testimony of provider’s expert regarding conversations between expert and provider’s office manager about efforts provider had undertaken to obtain counsel, including conversations between office manager and various attorneys who allegedly refused to accept representation, is inadmissible double hearsay — Provider’s counsel failed to show inability to mitigate risk of nonpayment where counsel would be able to mitigate risk of nonpayment in this case by achieving successful results or settlements in 300 other PIP cases in which counsel represents same provider — Application of multiplier is not appropriate