Volume 20

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1218b

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2012VANNInsurance — Attorney’s fees — Justiciable issues — Insurer is entitled to award of attorney’s fees and costs where medical provider filed voluntary dismissal after expiration of 21-day safe harbor period

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1228a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2012PENDAttorney’s fees — Justiciable issues — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Defendant’s motion to tax fees and costs pursuant to section 57.105 is denied based upon finding that neither plaintiff nor plaintiff’s attorney knew or should have known that plaintiff’s claim of assignment was not supported by material facts necessary to establish claim or by the application of then-existing law to those material facts — Moreover, claim was initially presented to court as a good faith argument for extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law, as it applied to the material facts, with a reasonable expectation of success — Finally, losing party’s attorney acted in good faith, based on representations of client as to material facts

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 589b

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2006BAEZInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Justiciable issues — Where medical provider pursued claim against insurer in spite of knowing that it had no standing to sue because insured had revoked assignment of benefits, insurer is entitled to award of attorney’s fees

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 141a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2002ORTAInsurance — Homeowners — Attorney’s fees — Homeowner who filed suit after appraisal clause was invoked by insurer is entitled to attorney’s fees under totality of circumstances, including passage of six years between claim and final payment, effect of turn-over of insurer’s employees handling claim, multiple times homeowner sent documentation of claim, insurer’s conduct in allowing claim to remain dormant despite pending expiration of statute of limitations, and numerous threats by homeowner to resort to litigation

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 713a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2007SPENInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Prevailing insured — Reasonable hours expended — Time claimed by insured’s attorney is reduced to delete travel time, time spent on clerical tasks, vague and duplicative entries, excessive billing and hours spent due to mistrial declared at request of insured on issue on which insurer ultimately prevailed — Reasonable hourly rate — Rate is capped at rate agreed to by insured and her counsel in original contract — Rate cannot be increased to higher rate agreed to by insured during litigation where agreement was not reduced to writing as required by original contract — Insurer’s request for downward adjustment of lodestar fee based on fact that jury only awarded one-third of damages sought is denied where it is not possible to separate investigation and prosecution of successful claims from unsuccessful claims that all involved treatment with same medical provider for same injuries — Contingency risk multiplier — Where application of contingency risk multiplier would result in fee that is manifestly unjust given amount in dispute, and case presents no rare or unique circumstances that weigh in favor of discounting that disparity, application of multiplier is not appropriate — Fees of attorney’s fees experts are reduced to reflect testimony disallowed or portions of testimony on which court did not rely — Where presentation of testimony by two fee experts was not necessary, each expert’s fee is reduced by half — Expert witness fee of treating physician is taxable cost — Claimed paralegal costs not supported by evidence are disallowed

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 346a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2004ALFOInsurance — Attorney’s fees — No abuse of discretion in refusing to dismiss claims for attorney’s fees for fraud on court based, in part, on attorney’s submission of timesheets which included work performed by less experienced attorneys

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 814a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2008JAKUInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Amount — Contingency risk multiplier — Cases litigating permissive fee schedule issue are public policy enforcement cases in which court may award contingency risk multiplier irrespective of whether availability of multiplier was necessary to obtain competent counsel — Where evidence shows that relevant market requires multiplier to obtain competent counsel, medical providers were unable to mitigate risk of loss, and cases involved important legal issue, providers are entitled to multiplier — In cases filed prior to dispositive Kingsway decision, multiplier of 2.0 is appropriate; in cases filed after Kingsway decision, multiplier of 1.25 is appropriate — Expert witness fee awarded

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 164a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2002LUCKInsurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Amount — Number of hours claimed by attorney and paralegals is reduced to eliminate time spent on secretarial and clerical work — Continency risk multiplier was required to obtain competent counsel in PIP cases and chance of success in case was even at outset — Multiplier of 1.5 is appropriate

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 138a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2002STEWInsurance — Automobile — Attorney’s fees — Amount — Contingency risk multiplier of 1.5 is appropriate where insureds experienced difficulty in obtaining competent counsel and counsel was required to expend significant efforts to overcome insurer’s claim that vehicle, which had transponder key, could not have been stolen without insureds’ participation and to overcome challenges to venue and settlement agreement — Costs and expert witness fees awarded

20 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 1157b

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2012ALLFAttorney’s fees — Class actions — Counsel for intervenor — Incentive award — Contingency risk multiplier — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Dispute over PIP insurer’s use of Medicare’s Outpatient Prospective Payment System as basis for payments to MRI providers, which was ultimately expanded to include as class members all Florida health care providers who received other types of allegedly unlawful underpayments pursuant to certain statutory provisions — Intervenor in class action entitled to incentive award in view of intervenor’s successful efforts to improve settlement agreement for other class members and assumption of risks of undertaking those efforts — Intervenor also awarded reasonable fees and costs pursuant to sections 627.736(8) and 627.428 — Overwhelming evidence confirms that intervenor’s efforts in instant case and in appeal to district court substantially improved original settlement, conferred significant benefit on class, and significantly enhanced class’s recovery — Attorney’s fees are properly awardable for Intervenor’s ongoing efforts in litigating entitlement to attorney’s fees — Fees awarded for efforts in separate class action previously filed by intervenor in a different circuit involving the same expanded class of health care providers and the same broad fee schedule issue that was now covered by the settlement agreement in this action — Discussion of reasonable attorney’s fee lodestar and costs concerning instant case and appeal to district court — Lodestar multipliers — Reasonable expert witness fees awarded