Volume 12

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 700a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Time spent litigating entitlement to fees — Error to exclude post-judgment time from calculation of insurer’s attorney’s fee award where insured failed to acquiesce to insurer’s entitlement to fees pursuant to proposal for settlement/offer of judgement and continued to litigate whether proposal for settlement or offer of judgment under section 768.79 was applicable to PIP cases and whether insurer’s proposal/offer was made in good faith

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 422a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Depositions — Failure to appear — Error to impose sanction of attorney’s fees and costs against nonparty expert witness for failure to appear at deposition without finding witness in contempt — Fact that witness declined option of having contempt hearing does not obviate need for finding of contempt to support imposition of sanctions — Further, award of sanctions was premature where witness was not given opportunity to comply with order granting motion to compel entered three days earlier

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 569a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Depositions — Failure to appear — Sanctions — Motions for contempt and/or orders compelling attendance of two witnesses at depositions granted — Sanctions — Attorney’s fees awarded for cost of bringing motion against one witness

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 583b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Failure to comply — Sanctions — Where insured has been trying unsuccessfully for two years to obtain information on amount of money insurer has paid to medical providers who conducted independent medical evaluation and peer review, and insurer’s conduct has come perilously close to but has not quite reached level of egregious conduct necessary to invoke ultimate sanction of striking insurer’s pleadings, striking insurer’s experts and imposition of monetary sanctions are appropriate

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 587b

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Proposal for settlement — Attorney’s fees and costs are awarded to prevailing insurer whose valid proposal for settlement was rejected by medical provider

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 237b

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Prevailing insurer is awarded attorney’s fees and costs for representation after rejection of proposal for settlement — Expert witness fee and prejudgment interest are awarded

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 236a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Prevailing insurer is awarded attorney’s fees for handling of case from time of service of proposal for settlement

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 2a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Prevailing party — Section 627.401(2) precludes award of fees to prevailing medical provider under section 627.428 where PIP policy was neither issued nor delivered in Florida — No merit to argument that trial court had authority to award fees under section 627.736(8) where court specifically awarded fees under section 627.428 as requested by provider — Costs — Abuse of discretion to award costs for cancellation fee for deposition cancelled by provider due to illness of counsel

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1092a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Proposal for settlement — Small claims — Insurer’s motion to tax attorney’s fees and costs is denied where rule 1.442 was never invoked, proposal for settlement was not timely filed due to failure to add five-day mailing period, and section 768.79 cannot apply as it must be read in conjunction with rule 1.442 — Prevailing party — Medical provider is prevailing party entitled to fee award where provider did not prevail on every issue but did prevail on significant issue of reasonableness, relatedness and necessity of treatment

12 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 131a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Where final judgment on merits of PIP suit has been reversed, award of fees and costs in case must also be reversed