Volume 19

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 402a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1905WOODInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Contingency risk multiplier — Expert testimony is sufficient to establish that medical provider would have difficulty finding competent counsel without possibility of multiplier; provider is not required to testify to actual difficulty confronted — Multiplier of 2.0 is justified where attorney was not able to mitigate risk of nonpayment, fee arrangement was pure contingency fee arrangement, underlying claims were relatively small, attorney recovered full amount demanded plus interest, insurer was “purpose-driven” opponent seeking to establish precedent regarding need for perfect disclosure and acknowledgment form, and likelihood of success at outset was 50% — Costs — Travel time for expert witness is not compensable — Question certified

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 319b

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1905LEVYInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Contingency risk multiplier — No merit to argument that multiplier cannot be applied when party seeking multiplier fails to personally testify that she had difficulty obtaining competent counsel — Expert testimony demonstrating that market required multiplier in order to obtain competent counsel was sufficient to support application of multiplier despite fact that insured did not testify that she had actual difficulty in obtaining competent counsel

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 338a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1905AFFIInsurance — Attorney’s fees — Trial court lacked jurisdiction to award attorney’s fees to co-counsel for medical provider where provider’s other attorney settled case on behalf of provider and entered voluntary dismissal stating that each party would bear own attorney’s fees and costs, and co-counsel, who was unaware of settlement, did not assert claim for fees prior to entry of dismissal

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 50c

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1901MOREInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Application for attorney’s fees and costs filed by attorney who voluntarily withdrew from representation is denied where attorney failed to file notice of charging lien prior to entry of final judgment — Even if notice of charging lien had been filed, attorney who was employed pursuant to contingency fee agreement and voluntarily withdrew from representation prior to occurrence of contingency forfeited all rights to compensation

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 220a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1904GERVInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Appellate — Voluntarily dismissed appeal — Medical provider/appellee’s failure to file motion for appellate fees prior to insurer’s voluntary dismissal of its appeal and failure to specify any basis for fee award in untimely motion for fees requires denial of request for appellate fees — De minimis nature of appellate efforts by provider also compels denial of request for appellate fees

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 86a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1902JHINInsurance — Attorney’s fees — Appellate — Timeliness of motion — Motion to tax appellate attorney’s fees, which was filed with answer brief, was timely filed

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1006a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1912MGAInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Appellate — Prevailing insured is not entitled to award of appellate attorney’s fees under section 627.428 where action was for declaratory judgment as to coverage and did not seek money damages

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 973a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1912LARAInsurance — Personal injury protection — Dismissal — Error to dismiss statement of claim with prejudice as being barred by res judicata or collateral estoppel based on voluntary dismissal of prior litigation where voluntary dismissal of prior litigation was not referenced in claim or attachments to claim — Award of appellate attorney’s fees to prevailing medical provider is automatically conditioned, by controlling, precedent on provider ultimately prevailing with recovery on policy

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 71a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1902ASPIInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Amount — No abuse of discretion in awarding $25 per hour rate increase to medical provider’s attorney where decision was supported by competent substantial evidence in form of expert testimony — Appellate fees — Justiciable issues — Appellate attorney’s fees are awarded to provider where insurer’s decision to appeal rate increase was not supported by facts or law

19 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 802c

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 1910FMERInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Appellate — Where insurer’s appeal was dismissed without decision on merits, medical provider is entitled to award of appellate attorney’s fees