Volume 14

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 821a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Expert witness — Abuse of discretion to strike medical provider’s attorney’s fees expert and deny motion for fees in its entirety where there was some evidentiary support for fees in attorney’s testimony regarding hourly rate and hours worked, and expert possessed educational requirements — Any lack of experience on part of expert goes only to weight of expert’s testimony, not admissibility

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 500a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Discovery — Attorney billing and time records

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 176a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Proposal for settlement — Nominal offer — Although insurer may have had reasonable basis to conclude its exposure in case was nominal at time of making nominal settlement offer, such that offer was made in good faith, where basis for summary judgment was apparent to insurer long before parties engaged in eight months of protracted litigation, insurer’s motion to tax attorney’s fees and costs is denied

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1022a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Remand for specific findings of fact and conclusions of law to support application of 1.5 multiplier

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 744b

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Error to apply multiplier where testimony that neither medical provider’s counsel nor its expert would have taken case except for prospect of multiplier and that relevant market dictated application of multiplier is insufficient to support conclusion that provider actually had difficulty obtaining counsel — Time spent litigating entitlement to multiplier is not recoverable

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 740a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Fee multiplier is not impermissible in PIP cases — Error to apply contingency risk multiplier where there was no evidence except conclusory opinion of expert that multiplier was required for insured to obtain competent counsel at outset of case — Where fee application is not wholly unsupported, remand for further proceedings is appropriate

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 500b

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — Where medical provider presented evidence that provider’s counsel was only local attorney willing to sue insurer and was not able to mitigate risk of nonpayment by payment of hourly fees or otherwise, that no attorney in circuit was willing to accept case without prospect of earning a multiplier, that case involved twelve affirmative defenses litigated aggressively, and that provider’s likelihood of success at outset was at best 50% and more likely 25 – 40%, provider is entitled to 1.5 multiplier

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 483a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Hourly rate — $350/hr is reasonable rate for most experienced and effective PIP plaintiff’s attorney in two-county area, and $95/hr is reasonable rate for paralegal with extensive PIP and civil experience — Contingency risk multiplier — Where evidence established that competent counsel could not be obtained in like cases in community without multiplier despite medical provider’s existing relationship with counsel, counsel was unable to mitigate risk of nonpayment, and chance of success at outset was even, multiplier of 2.0 is awarded

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 476a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Amount — Hourly rate — $350/hr is reasonable rate for most experienced and effective PIP plaintiff’s attorney in two-county area, and $95/hr is reasonable rate for paralegal with extensive PIP and civil experience — Contingency risk multiplier — Where evidence established that competent counsel could not be obtained in like cases in community without multiplier despite medical provider’s existing relationship with counsel, counsel was unable to mitigate risk of nonpayment, and chance of success at outset was even, multiplier of 2.0 is awarded

14 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 81a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Contingency risk multiplier — It is not appropriate to apply multiplier where there has been no testimony that insured had any difficulty retaining competent counsel in case — Prejudgment interest, expert witness fees and costs awarded