How can the courts – and the Florida legislature – help limit this kind of abuse?
Unfortunately, the provisions and measures enacted by the Florida legislature to control PIP fraud and abuse are not enforced by the courts. Maybe it is that the courts do not understand the extent of the fraud and abuse and how much it costs Florida citizens in the form of increased insurance premiums and taxes. Maybe the courts do not understand how much they are hurting Florida citizens by allowing this type of litigation and resulting attorneys’ fees. PIP cases are litigated almost exclusively in county courts, where the court’s jurisdiction does not exceed $15,000. It is astounding that courts with this jurisdictional limit so freely award attorneys’ fees well in excess of this amount. We have seen fee awards in PIP cases in excess of $100,000 when the benefits recovered were only a couple thousand of dollars.Å@The county courts reward plaintiffs’ attorneys for churning fees and performing unnecessary work to prosecute their cases.Å@This phenomenon of inexplicable attorney-fee awa
