Florida Legislature Reauthorizes PIP Statute, With a Twist
Attorney
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The Florida Legislature has reauthorized the Florida Personal Injury Protection ("PIP") statute, which will become effective on January 1, 2008.
One particular provision of the new PIP statute dealing with reimbursement of a claimant's attorney's fees is particularly interesting. In some cases, there may be no attorney's fees awarded at all. When a claimant files suit against his or her insurance company for unpaid or unreimbursed PIP benefits, the new provision would potentially bar an award of attorney's fees if the court determines that the claim "should have been brought in a prior civil action" but wasn't.
What does this mean? Well, another provision of the same statute says that "all claims related to the same health care provider for the same injured person shall be brought in one action," ordinarily. In other words, it appears that the Florida legislature has determined that one of the times that a claim "should have been brought in a prior civil action" is when the claimant had made a prior claim against "the same health care provider for the same injured person."
This could create a pitfall for a claimant. For example, if a claimant sues his insurer for failure to pay the claimant's health care provider for treatment, a later suit, based on a later refusal to reimburse, could result in the claimant not recovering his attorney's fees in the second lawsuit. This would seem to require that the claimant complete his treatment with the health care provider to make sure he sues only once for all of the denials of the insurer to pay benefits for treatment by that provider.
What else may qualify as "a claim that should have been brought in a prior civil action" has yet to be determined by a court.
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.