Thanks to a Recent Decision past times the Florida Supreme Court, a 15-Minute Call on Car Insurance May Not Cost You Thousands equally the Court Ruled Against GEICO inward GEICO v. Macedo
Alysia Macedo brought a personal injury claim against Zackery Lombardo subsequently they were involved inward a machine wreck, for which Lombardo was at-fault. GEICO provided Mr. Lombardo amongst $100,000 inward liability coverage for the loss. Before the illustration went to trial, Macedo in addition to her attorneys offered to terminate the illustration if Lombardo in addition to GEICO would concur to a $50,000 settlement. They refused.
Like virtually car insurance policies, GEICO had sole say-so to attain upwards one's heed whether to settle the claim or to permit a lawsuit to hold out filed. GEICO chose non to settle in addition to allowed the lawsuit to motion forward. This sole discretion to chose, of course, extended to Ms. Macedo’s personal injury claim against Mr. Lombardo.
Even though GEICO could conduct maintain settled the claim for $50,000, GEICO chose non to settle in addition to instead larn to trial. They lost the case.
The jury returned a verdict for to a greater extent than than $200,000 against Mr. Lombardo, to a greater extent than than 4 times Macedo's original asking price.
The master copy $50,000 offering was made inward the cast of a Proposal For Settlement, which falls under Florida Statute 768.79. Normally, attorneys' fees for personal injury cases are paid past times the plaintiff based on a contingency fee. This way that the mortal suing pays their attorney a percent of their compensation is they win their illustration or goose egg if they don't. However, the statue states that if a plaintiff offers a short town bargain to the accused in addition to they select non to convey it and the jury's judgment is to a greater extent than than 25% of the offer, the plaintiff is due reasonable costs for having to larn to trial. This includes investigative expenses in addition to attorneys' fees.
This usage of the police is designed to encourage defendants to convey reasonable short town offers inward lodge to salve the courts fourth dimension in addition to money, in addition to to expedite the procedure for everyone involved.
Because Ms. Macedo's sentence was patently higher than 25% of $50,000, she was entitled to recover attorneys’ fees in addition to costs against the defendant, Mr. Lombardo.
In a post-trial decision, the trial courtroom ruled that Mr. Lombardo's insurer, GEICO, should pay for those extra costs in addition to expenses awarded against its insured, specifically because they were the ones who made the determination to larn to trial.
GEICO objected in addition to took the affair upwards on appeal. While GEICO did non object to fees in addition to costs existence awarded straight against its insured, it did object to the ruling making GEICO responsible for those fees in addition to costs.
GEICO asserted its policy did non encompass “the costs in addition to attorney’s fees awarded against [its insured] nether the [Proposal for Settlement] statute because they were non ‘incurred past times an insured at [GEICO’s] request.’”(1).
The Florida Supreme Court disagreed, pointing out the "expenses awarded against the insured were incurred equally a trial of the insurance company’s alternative non to settle."
Remember, GEICO had sole command over settling the case; it was non upwards to Mr. Lombardo. It could conduct maintain authorized a short town in addition to inward essence controlled the litigation. “It follows that whatever costs or fee incurred equally a trial of GEICO exercising its say-so in addition to command is something that it intended to pay.” The Supreme Court concluded the applicable insurance provisions at number were ambiguous, in addition to the GEICO policy should so hold out construed to render coverage for the costs in addition to attorneys’ fees awarded against Mr. Lombardo.
In the end, spell GEICO insurance may conduct maintain initially saved Zackery Lombardo 15% on his machine insurance through GEICO, he was left personally exposed to thousands upon thousands of dollars inward litigation expenses from a lawsuit GEICO chose non to settle. Good thing for him, in addition to all of us, that the Florida Supreme Court spent to a greater extent than than xv minutes debating this of import machine insurance number in addition to properly ruled inward favor of GEICO paying the expenses they forced everyone to incur.
-Article written past times Dave Neiser, Esq., a Board Certified Civil Trial Specialist at Dolman Law Group
(1) GEICO v. Macedo 42 FLW 731(Fla. July xiii 2017)
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