10 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 63a
Insurance — Personal injury protection — Attorney’s fees — Reasonable hourly rate and reasonable number of hours expended determined — Medical provider is entitled to payment for time spent litigating motion to disqualify counsel withdrawn on day of hearing — Contingency risk multiplier — Medical provider is entitled to contingency risk multiplier of 1.50
TITUSVILLE TOTAL HEALTHCARE as Assignee of Dawn Acklin, Plaintiff, v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant. County Court, 18th Judicial Circuit in and for Brevard County. Case No. 05-2001-SC-013120. November 25, 2002. Kenneth Friedland, Judge. Counsel: Kimberly P. Simoes, Susan W. Tolbert, P.L., Daytona Beach. Joseph G. Murasko, West Palm Beach.
ORDER
This action came before the Court upon Plaintiff’s Motion for Attorney’s Fees. Upon the evidence presented the Court finds as follows:
1. The Plaintiff is entitled to an award of attorney’s fees at a reasonable hourly rate of two hundred dollars ($200.00) per hour.
2. The Plaintiff is entitled to an award of attorney’s fees for a reasonable number of hours spent in this action in the amount of sixty-five and four tenths (65.4) hours, which includes all time spent litigating the motion to disqualify brought by the Defendant and withdrawn on the day of hearing.
3. The Plaintiff is entitled to an award of one hundred, seventy-eight dollars, fifty cents ($178.50) for paralegal work (2.1 hours at $85.00 per hour).
4. The Plaintiff is entitled to an award for an expert witness fee in compensation for five hours at three hundred dollars ($300.00) per hour for a total of one thousand, five hundred dollars ($1,500.00).
5. The court has considered the appropriate factors set forth by the Florida Bar Code of Ethics 4-1.5; Florida Patients Compensation Fund v. Rowe, 472 So.2d 1145 (Fla. 1985), and Standard Guaranty Ins. Co. v. Quanstrom, 555 So.2d 828 (Fla. 1990) to determine entitlement to a contingency risk factor.
6. The Court finds that the Plaintiff is entitled to a contingency risk factor of 1.50 in this specific action.
7. The Court therefore awards to Plaintiff an attorney’s fee of nineteen thousand, six hundred twenty dollars ($19,620.00) together with a paralegal fee of one hundred, seventy-eight dollars, fifty cents ($178.50) and an expert witness fee of one thousand, five hundred dollars ($1,500.00). The Court also awards applicable court costs.
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