Michael Clarke and Jennifer Emerson, of our Tampa office, prevailed in Progressive Select Ins.Co. v. Kagan Jugan & Associates, P.A., 2022 WL 609447 (Fla. 2d DCA Mar. 2, 2022), where the Second District reversed a trial court order finding that a PIP insurer’s nominal proposal for settlement (“PFS”) was not made in good faith. The court reaffirmed the well-established rule that a trial court is governed by binding precedent, including district court opinions that have previously decided the relevant issue in dispute. The Second District had previously established that a PIP insurer’s notice and election of the fee schedule reimbursement methodology was valid and, therefore, no longer unsettled, despite the Florida Supreme Court’s recent acceptance of discretionary jurisdiction to review the same. Applying this rule, the court held that a PFS is made in good faith when the offeror had a reasonable foundation to make the offer with an intent to settle. Progressive had relied on a nearly factually-identical case from the Second District to make the nominal offer in its evaluation of its contractual exposure and, therefore, acted in good faith, As a result, the court held Progressive’s PFS should be enforced.
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