Volume 13

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 713b

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Depositions — Medical provider is entitled to depose insurer’s counsel regarding attorney’s fees — Depositions are relevant and material to issues surrounding amount of fees and costs to be awarded to provider — Insurer is ordered to produce documents relating to time spent and costs incurred by insurer’s counsel

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1109a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Discovery — Motions for protective orders regarding depositions of insurer’s attorneys and corporate representative with most knowledge of hiring attorneys are denied — Court recedes from prior ruling that attorney may be compensated for litigating question of reasonable fee

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1022a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Insurer’s motion to strike provider’s motion for attorney’s fees and costs based on plaintiff’s asserted willful and intentional failure to cooperate with discovery related to claims for fees and costs is denied

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 868a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — No abuse of discretion in awarding contingency risk multiplier where there was competent substantial evidence on which trial court could make finding that relevant market required multiplier in order for medical provider to obtain competent counsel, even without disputed market research report, error was harmless if court did consider report, and 1.5 multiplier awarded was modest

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 834a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Where counsel for medical provider was working under contingency fee agreement, and case involved issue of pre-existing neurological condition, 1.5 multiplier is applicable — Expert witness fees awarded

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 824c

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Where insured’s counsel undertook representation pursuant to contingency fee agreement, market in jurisdiction requires multiplier in order for claimants to obtain competent counsel, and insured’s chances of success at outset were more likely than not, contingency risk multiplier of 1.35 is appropriate — Costs, expert witness fees and prejudgment interest awarded

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 728a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Where medical provider’s likelihood of success at outset of case was 50/50 at best, local market requires contingency risk multiplier in order to obtain competent counsel, and provider obtained 100% of outstanding medical bills, multiplier of 1.75 is appropriate — Costs and expert witness fees awarded

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 688a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Difficulty in obtaining counsel — Where expert witness testified that there was significant risk in assuming cases in which countersignature of medical bills is in contention due to divergence of legal theories on issue, and enhanced fee is necessary to obtain competent counsel in such risky cases, medical provider established that securing counsel without multiplier would be difficult — Inability to mitigate risk of loss — Where expert testified that due to small sums involved in PIP cases and rarity of large settlements it is unlikely that attorneys can use fees earned in successful suits to offset losses, and counsel could not enter into fee contract with provider not capable of shouldering high cost of litigation, provider established that counsel could not mitigate risk of loss

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 624a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Final judgment awarding attorney’s fees, including 1.5 contingency risk multiplier, and costs

13 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 621a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Hours expended — Time spent litigating entitlement to fees — Medical provider is entitled to attorney’s fees for time spent after insurer conceded that provider was entitled to fees if provider ultimately succeeds in case where insurer did not clearly and unequivocally acquiesce to entitlement — Contingency risk multiplier — Where fee agreement between provider and counsel was pure contingency fee contract, provider’s likelihood of success at outset was more likely than not, relevant market requires multiplier to obtain competent counsel in PIP cases, case involved complex issues of possible overlapping treatment for two accidents and down-coding, counsel was unable to mitigate risk of nonpayment in any way, and counsel obtained excellent result, multiplier of 1.25 is reasonable and appropriate — Prejudgment interest, expert witness fees and costs awarded