Caryn Bellus of our Miami office and Angela Flowers of our Ocala office received an affirmance of an order denying Plaintiffs’ motion for attorney’s fees and costs in Joazil v. American Integrity Insurance Company, Case No. 5D2024-2585 (Fla. 5th DCA August 18, 2026). The Fifth District affirmed the trial court’s ruling on novel issues involving the interaction between Florida’s confession of judgment doctrine and §627.70152’s pre-suit notice requirement in a first-party property insurance action. During the lawsuit, the insurer served Plaintiffs with an indemnity only proposal for settlement that they accepted. Subsequently, Plaintiffs sought attorney’s fees and costs relying on the confession of judgment doctrine as applied to a post-suit payment of insurance benefits. American Integrity opposed Plaintiffs’ fee and costs motion on the grounds that Plaintiffs failure to satisfy §627.70152’s requirements deprived American Integrity of a meaningful opportunity to resolve the matter pre-suit, the lawsuit represented an improper race to the courthouse, and Plaintiffs failed to satisfy §627.70152(8)’s requirements, including that they were unable to satisfy the statute’s monetary threshold calculations required to trigger entitlement to fees.

The Fifth DCA agreed with Caryn and Angela’s analysis and affirmed!