Volume 12

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 215b

Civil procedure — Striking of pleadings — Order granting motion to strike pleadings, specifically finding willful noncompliance, is affirmed

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 868a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery orders — Failure to comply — Sanctions — Where insurer comes to court with unclean hands due to failure to comply with discovery orders, court refuses to entertain insurer’s motion for summary judgment and strikes its proposal for settlement — Exhaustion of policy limits — Escrow of disputed benefits — Court does not rule on insured’s motion to escrow disputed benefits but notes that risk inherent in insurer’s decision to continue to pay bills despite request to escrow funds rests entirely on insurer and puts insurer at risk of paying above policy limits

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 866c

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery orders — Failure to comply — Sanctions — Insurer’s motion to dismiss for failure to comply with order to produce better answers to interrogatories and responses to request for production is denied in part, and production of better responses and answers is ordered — Insurer is awarded attorney’s fees for bringing motion

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 582a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Interrogatories — Failure to comply — Where court finds defendant in willful and wanton contempt of court for violating numerous orders to provide better answers to expert witness interrogatories, and medical provider has been prejudiced by failure to provide information needed to fully and fairly cross-examine experts at trial, insurer’s experts are stricken with prejudice

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1099b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Failure to comply — Sanctions — Civil contempt — Default — Where repeated failure to comply with discovery was not result of neglect or inexperience of insurer’s attorney, attorney has been previously sanctioned three times in case, insurer itself is personally involved in disobedience of attorney working directly and solely for insurer, medical provider has incurred far more fees than necessary to obtain information it had clear right to obtain, attorney offered no explanation for noncompliance, and delay created significant problems for judicial administration by requiring that judge spend inordinate amount of time on motions to compel and motions for sanctions, insurer is found in civil contempt and default is entered

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1099a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Failure to comply — Sanctions — Default — Civil contempt — Where insurer’s attorney had ability to comply with discovery orders but willfully and with deliberate indifference failed to do so, insurer was complicit in disobedience, failure to comply has caused undue delay prejudicing medical provider, insurer had notice from prior order that timely compliance was condition precedent to defense of suit and more than fair opportunity to cure, and court has been presented no valid reason for noncompliance, insurer is held in civil contempt and default is entered

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 264b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Failure to comply — Sanctions — Insurer ordered to pay medical provider’s attorney’s fees and to make contribution to charity

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 231a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Second motion to compel response to discovery is granted — Failure to comply will result in dismissal with prejudice

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1020a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Requests that insurer provide independent medical examination reports prepared by insurer’s expert and copies of payment invoices were overly broad — Content of IME report is protected healthcare information, and seeking even redacted versions of IMEs impermissibly infringes on patient privacy, without a corresponding justification — Impeachment of expert is collateral purpose which is more easily obtained through cross-examination of expert — Discovery that is permitted is how often expert testified on insurer’s behalf and how much money expert made from its relationship with insurer — Limiting discovery to one-year period was appropriate — Remand with instructions to enter order directing insurer to provide information on how often expert was hired by insurer for expert witness services, names of cases expert was hired to render opinions in, and how much money expert was paid for his services, including hourly rates, during one-year period

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1093b

Insurance — Discovery — Production by insurer’s experts of list of all payments for any expert services for past two years