Volume 4

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 822b

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Party prevailing in action against insurer

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 479a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Insured’s action against insurer — Offer of judgment — Insurer cannot make an offer of judgment and recover attorney’s fees against an insured in a first-party PIP case — Question certified — Section 627.428 governs award of attorney’s fees in PIP cases — Insured’s motion to strike insurer’s offer of judgment is granted

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 381a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Insured’s action against insurer — Where jury found insured entitled to $1000 in damages for his medical bills, but insured recovered nothing because policy had $2000 deductible, insured was not entitled to award of attorney’s fees

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 218a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Voluntary dismissal of insurer’s counterclaim constituted an adjudication on the merits where insurer had voluntarily dismissed initial suit raising similar claims and involving same transaction — Because adjudication on the merits occurred with voluntary dismissal of insurer’s counterclaim, judgment was, in effect, entered for insured, precluding insurer from relitigating the issue and allowing insured to retain benefits previously paid — Insured entitled to recover attorney’s fees incurred in defense of counterclaim

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 226a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Insured entitled to attorney’s fees incurred in defending judgments entered in his favor against insurer’s motions to have judgments set aside and fees incurred in collecting, executing or obtaining satisfaction of judgments — Contingency risk multiplier applies to defense of post-judgment motions to have judgments set aside, but does not apply to time expended in furtherance of execution, collection or satisfaction of judgments — Insured awarded costs, expert witness fees, and interest

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 325b

Insurance — Attorney’s fees — Insured seeking award of attorney’s fees and costs following resolution of insured’s suit against insurer for unpaid medical bills — Insured not entitled to fee award for counsel’s presuit activity of filing earlier lawsuit which was voluntarily dismissed — Multiplier of 1.75 applied to fee award — Insured’s attorney entitled to fee award for time spent arguing for application of a multiplier

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 805a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Contingency multiplier — Time and labor — Plaintiff may obtain attorney’s fees for litigating entitlement to attorney’s fees, but not for litigating the amount of the fee — Establishing entitlement to the use of a multiplier is an entitlement issue in which the client retains an interest — Issues of multiplier, prejudgment interest, and market rate found to be issues of entitlement — Time and labor — Duplication of effort — Where the billing statements of co-counsel are consistent with efforts to properly coordinate activities to save time and maximize the talents of each attorney to better represent the client, there is no duplication of effort and the attorneys made efficient use of their time and labor — Novelty of issues — Where a case involves several novel issues, which if supported by the facts will result in losing the case, the time spent is justified — An attorney’s requested hourly rate that is well within the range of fees charged in the community for similar work and by attorneys of similar skill and reputation is reasonable — Contingency risk multiplier — A multiplier is appropriate in cases where the insurance company contests a PIP case and the court finds that it would have been difficult if not impossible for PIP plaintiff to get proper legal representation on a contested PIP case without a contingency contract, and that attorneys of skill and reputation would not accept such cases without a contingency fee multiplier — Where co-counsel shared the work and risk and testified they could not have achieved the same results without working as a team, they should share the same multiplier — Expert witness fees — Court has no discretion to deny the attorney expert witness fees — Prejudgment interest on attorney’s fees and costs shall accrue from the date of resolution of the case

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 668a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Contingency risk multiplier — After assessment of pertinent factors, case merits application of risk multiplier of 1.5, despite lack of complexity of legal issues — Evidence supports plaintiff’s argument that relevant marketplace limits ability of litigants of plaintiff’s financial strata to hire competent counsel for PIP suits of this nature without incentive of risk multiplier

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 663a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Attorney’s fees awarded to insured who prevailed in suit against insurer arising out of delay in payment of personal injury protection benefits — Fees for legal assistant work disallowed on ground that no testimony was introduced directly or through expert witnesses concerning those fees — Application of 1.5 contingency risk multiplier is appropriate under circumstances — Hourly rate of $250 deemed appropriate in view of attorneys’ knowledge, skill and experience — Plaintiff may not recover for attorney time spent as result of plaintiff’s own misconduct, acts of omission or lack of cooperation, or for time attorneys spent litigating whether contingency risk multiplier should be factored into fee award — Court declines to award fees for hired attorney’s fees expert

4 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 490a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Personal injury protection — Insured awarded attorney’s fees incurred in action against insurer — Number of hours claimed is reasonable — Issues involved were somewhat novel and complex in that insurer raised defense that insured had made material misrepresentations in insurance application by failing to disclose resident relatives and defense that insured made material misrepresentations when applying for benefits — Market rate applicable to case is that charged in community for cases concerning principally tort and contract issues — Application of contingency risk multiplier of 2.0 is appropriate under circumstances — Insured entitled to award of fees incurred in litigating issue of entitlement to attorney’s fees — Issue of whether or not multiplier should be used is “entitlement” issue — Insured entitled to award of prejudgment interest on attorney’s fees from date of entitlement — Where insurer entered into settlement with insured for benefits and interest on specified date, but failed to pay settlement amount within twenty days, insurer is required to pay additional interest on full settlement amount as penalty for delay