A Florida appellate court has ruled that an insured in a first-party insurance dispute may be awarded an attorney's fee that exceeds the amount the insured actually paid to his attorneys.
|The case
David Forthuber was represented by three different law firms during the course of his first-party insurance fight with First Liberty Insurance Corporation, although the same lawyer, Hewett G. Woodward, handled the case throughout the six-year dispute.
Initially, Woodward worked for Latham, Shuker, Eden & Beaudine, LLP. He then switched to another law firm and subsequently started his own firm. The fee agreements between Forthuber and all firms were contingent on a successful outcome, and they required payment of the greater of a percentage of the recovery or a statutory reasonable fee.
When Woodward left the Latham firm, the firm advised Forthuber in writing that he had two options:
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