When Can the Florida Offer of Judgment Statute Be Used to Get Attorney Fees in Probate Litigation?April 13, 2016 Florida Fourth DCA Opinion

What is the offer of judgment statute? What does it do? Does the offer of  judgment statute apply if both damages and equitable relief are sought? With help from a skilled probate litigator West Palm Beach, you may be able to use this statute to get attorney’s fees and costs.Check out this April 13,2016 Fourth DCA case that awarded attorney’s fees under the offer of judgment statute, “despite the presence of a claim for non monetary relief.”

What is an Offer of Judgment?

• What is an offer of judgement?
• An offer of judgement is also known as a proposal of settlement or offer of settlement.
• Its purpose is to encourage parties to settle lawsuits, rather than going to court to have a Florida probate trial.
• Florida Statute 768.79 is the offer of judgment statute.
• So how do offers of judgement allow for attorneys’ fees?
• This Florida statute penalizes unsuccessful parties that refuse to accept a reasonable offer by making them liable for attorney’s fees incurred after the offer is made.
• What does this mean?
• If one party makes an offer, and it is a good offer, the other party should strongly consider the offer before deciding not to accept it.
• Florida trust and estate litigators know that settling before trial saves both parties, and the courts, money and time.
• When can judgement offers be used?
• You should discuss the specific rules with your local Palm Beach probate attorney.

MYD v. International Paint

• Although this is not a probate litigation case, judgment offers apply to “civil actions for damages.”
• Therefore, probate litigators Delray Beach know that the statute is an important trial litigation tool in a Florida trust and estates matter.
• Here, MYD argues that “Florida’s offer of judgment statute, section 768.79, did not apply because MYD sought both damages and equitable relief in the form of a permanent injunction in its complaint.”
• Basically, they were claiming that attorney’s fees and costs could not be awarded under the offer of judgement statute because they had both a “monetary” and “nonmonetary” cause of action.
• An offer of judgement can not be used to resolve both monetary and nonmonetary causes of action.
• Can they be used to resolve only monetary claims that happen to also contain a nonmonetary cause of action?
• Here, the court applied a “true relief test.”
• What does this mean?
• The court relies on a test from Florida Supreme Court case, Diamond Aircraft v. Horowitch, which states that the offer of judgment statute ” may be utilized in a suit seeking monetary and nonmonetary relief if the ” true relief” sought is monetary”.
• Here, since MYD did not actually pursue a nonmonetary relief, the only ” true relief” sought was monetary.
• Therefore, the summary judgment offers were enforceable.

Want to learn more?

Click here to read the entire case.

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