Volume 8

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 419a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Where insured’s initial complaint against insurer was dismissed for failure to prosecute, insured filed second complaint through same counsel, and insurer settled second case, error to award insured attorney’s fees and costs for first litigation — Where first case was dismissed for failure to prosecute, there was no adjudication on the merits and no prevailing party for purposes of section 627.428(1), and awarding fees as to that case was an abuse of discretion — Following involuntary dismissal of initial action, trial court in subsequent action is without authority to award costs in initial action — Abuse of discretion to award attorney’s fees as to dismissed case when insured’s attorneys could not properly bill insured for those hours

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 462a

Attorney’s fees — Insurance — Lodestar amount calculated at $185 per hour for 35 hours — Where fee agreement provided that client would pay partial fixed fee of $1.00 per hour and the remainder of attorney’s fee was contingent upon obtaining a court-awarded fee, court can apply contingency risk multiplier only to portion of lodestar amount that was contingent — Application of a multiplier of 1.10 is appropriate — Time spent litigating the amount of fee is not compensable despite claim that under fee agreement client had a direct, personal pecuniary interest in litigation of the amount of the fee — Costs, including fee for expert fee witness, awarded — Pre-judgment interest awarded

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 456a

Attorney’s fees — Lodestar — Reasonable hourly rate — Hours reasonably expended — By agreement of parties no contingency risk multiplier to be applied — Interest on attorney’s fee award accrues from date that entitlement to attorney’s fees was established — Expert, who was required to take time away from his practice and was necessary to render opinion relating to reasonable number of hours and hourly rate and applicability of contingency fee multiplier, and by agreement, is entitled to expert witness fee

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 799c

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Assignment of benefits — Assignment of PIP benefits to medical provider was valid notwithstanding that insured remained liable for balance of medical bills not paid by insurer

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 790b

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Assignment — Medical provider does not have standing to bring suit against insurer under purported assignment of benefits which is incomplete HCFA 1500 form

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 458a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Assignment — Insured’s failure to countersign medical bills does not relieve the insurer from liability for the payment of PIP benefits to medical provider who has accepted assignment of PIP benefits from the insured — Section 627.736(5), which provides that insurer may pay the medical provider directly when bills are countersigned, does not mean that insurer may not pay medical provider when bills are not countersigned

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 735a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Assignment stating that it does not constitute any consideration for assignee to await payments is not legally sufficient assignment — Summary judgment granted in favor of insurer in action brought against insurer by medical provider as assignee of insured

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 455a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Action by MRI provider against insurer for payment of assigned PIP benefits — Indication of assignment on form sent by plaintiff to insurer together with fact that plaintiff sent billing documentation directly to insurer was sufficient to impose a duty on insurer to investigate whether the insured had assigned benefits to plaintiff prior to making payment — Assignment not invalid due to alleged inconsistency in the taxpayer I.D. numbers provided by plaintiff — Where plaintiff received valid assignment of benefits from the insured, and insurer knew or should have known about the existence of such assignment, payment of benefits to the insured did not relieve insurer of its obligation to make payment to plaintiff — Motion for summary judgment in favor of plaintiff granted

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 230c

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Error to enter summary judgment on grounds that insured had assigned his PIP benefits to providers and no longer had standing when insurer admitted that no document existed that conclusively showed assignment, but asked the court to infer assignment from circumstances, and insured and providers filed affidavits denying assignment

8 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 682a

Insurance — Personal injury protection — Standing — Assignment — Error to enter summary judgment as to issue of standing where insurer claims that plaintiff made complete assignment of benefits and insured insists document she signed was not intended to be assignment — Necessity for making finding as to whether there was true assignment would preclude summary judgment