Personal Injury Protection ("PIP") benefits are generally available under Automobile Insurance policies issued in the United States. In Florida, PIP benefits were scheduled to permanently expire when the statute requiring them "sunset," or expired, on September 30, 2007. The Florida Legislature passed a reauthorization of the Florida PIP statute on Friday, October 5, 2007--effective, however, on January 1, 2008. It is difficult to find a link to this new statute which was passed three days ago at the time of this post. Link here to the "enrolled" bill which appears to be a compromise Florida Senate and House Bill 13.
New subsection (15) of Section 627.736 is of special interest. It is found on page 85 of 89 pages on the attached link. Subsection (15) regulates awards of attorney's fees. In some cases, there will be no attorney's fees awarded at all under this new statute.
Here is how it is written. How it will work will depend on the Florida Courts. Whenever a claimant files a lawsuit against the Insurance Company under Section 627.736 to recover PIP benefits allegedly due and owing under the Insurance Policy, the new provision purports to bar attorney's fees awards when there is a claim that "should have been brought in a prior civil action" but was not brought before, AND "the court determines" that to be the case.
The same new Subsection 627.736(15) also provides 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, at least one of the times when the Legislature was of the view that a PIP claim "should have been brought in a prior civil action," is whenever there was a previous claim for PIP benefits "related to the same health care provider for the same injured person". Parenthetically, Section 627.736 did not convey a statutory definition of "health care provider" before or after the new provision was enacted.
Whether there are any other times that a "court determines" that a lawsuit "is filed for a claim that should have been brought in a prior civil action," is of course also for the Courts to determine.
In the interim, the Florida PIP statute was recently reenacted to take effect next year.
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