Thanks to the Florida Dispute Resolution Center for inviting me to speak about Proposals for Settlement this year at their 2022 30th Annual Conference in Orlando. The PowerPoint for the presentation is here.
Florida courts have long determined that the “offer of judgment” statute, Florida Statute 768.79, and the corresponding “proposal for settlement rule, Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.442, should be strictly construed. The problem, however, is that the “strict compliance” approach opened a pandora’s box of litigation by losing parties who …
Proposals for Settlement in Florida (also known as Offers of Judgment) have a poor survival rate on appeal. The chance is decreased, almost to zero, if the offeror mentions a release but does not attach. Surprisingly, the offeror does not improve their chances by attaching a release. There’s too much room …
Two of the more novel, confusing areas of Florida civil law were addressed this week by the First District in Andrew and Kenneth Maines v. Marcia Drasko Fox. This case arose from an auto accident where the plaintiff claimed that she suffered a neck injury. The plaintiff won at trial. …
On April 27, 2016, the Third and Fourth District Courts of Appeal issued separate opinions on the much beguiled Proposal for Settlement. In Vanguard Car Rental USA, LLC v. Suttles, the Third DCA was confronted with the situation where defendant “Vanguard, Inc.” served a Proposal for Settlement on the Plaintiff. …
The First District Court of Appeal, for the second time, has called out a conflict with the Fourth DCA regarding how strictly the rule must be construed. In Colvin v. North Florida Women’s Care, a plaintiff served on the defendant a proposal for settlement for $20,000. She proceeded to trial …
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