In recent years, the runners have been replaced with more blatant solicitation efforts. Now, hotlines and advertisements such as 800-NEED HELP or 800-411-PAIN draw the accident victim in with promises of automatic payments of “$10,000 in benefits and lost wages.” These hotlines are owned and run by accident clinics and attorneys who to lure victims into this typical PIP scenario. Once a person calls into the hotline, he is automatically hooked up with an accident clinic and attorney and begins to receive the same $12,000 to $15,000 worth of unnecessary medical treatment.

Unfortunately, the entire PIP system is being exploited in Florida.

You recently cited a case in which a plaintiff's attorney filed a lawsuit for $2.59. What are the incentives for doing this?

That's easy: attorneys' fees. Under existing law, a judgment against an insurance company, no matter how small the amount, results in an award of attorneys' fees to the lawyer.

A typical plaintiff PIP attorney seeks $350 to $450 an hour and will bill in excess of 100 hours to collect the $2.59. They will then ask the court to award them $35,000 to $45,000 in fees for obtaining the $2.59 judgment. Plaintiff PIP attorneys have told us directly that they share the fees with the clinics. That's PIP.

Is this phenomenon an isolated incident?

No, this phenomenon is not an isolated incident. PIP attorneys and clinics have been exploiting the system for as long as PIP has been in place. We have been told that the group of plaintiff PIP attorneys that practice in Miami-Dade County call themselves “The Dirty 30.” If that doesn't tell you how commonplace it is, I don't know what does.

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. The county courts reward plaintiffs' attorneys for churning fees and performing unnecessary work to prosecute their cases. This phenomenon of inexplicable attorney-fee awards has fueled the fraud and abuse that permeates the PIP system.

Do you see any solutions on the horizon?

PIP fraud and abuse is so widespread in Florida, it's hard to say that the problem can ever be solved. It can certainly be controlled by stricter enforcement by the courts of the statutory provisions that the legislature enacted, and by the legislature closing the loopholes that exist in the current PIP laws. Of course, attorney-fee reform will have to occur for there ever to be hope of solving this problem.