Laurie Adams and Melonie Bueno, of the West Palm Beach office, successfully struck Plaintiff’s proposal for settlement which saved their client from over 100K in attorney fees. After the UM case had been tried by other counsel, Laurie and Melonie were retained to respond to Plaintiff’s attempts to avoid collateral source set offs, to which the client was due.

While reviewing the post trial materials, it became clear that not only was the client entitled to the set offs, but the Plaintiff’s multiple proposals for settlement were also void because of ambiguity. The court granted Laurie and Melonie’s motion for collateral source set offs for write downs and PIP. The court also granted Laurie and Melonie’s motion and struck plaintiff’s first proposal for settlement because it was an undifferentiated offer to two defendants, and it did not meet the requirements of Saenz v. Campos, 967 So. 2d 1114 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007). This was due to the fact that it did not clarify whether it settled only the claims in the UM case, or whether it also settled the bad faith claims enumerated in the previously filed civil remedy notice. Plaintiff then settled the case well within the policy limits.