Legal Question in Insurance Law in Florida

Re: Attorneys fees from insurance loss/fire damage

Your question suggests that you retained counsel pursuant to a contingency fee contract wherein your attorney provided you representation and likely advanced case costs with fees paid as a percentage of any recovery made on your behalf. This representation allows clients to obtain representsation without advancing case costs and paying hourly fees, and the attorney rather than the client assumes the risk that there will be a successful outcome from which compensation will be paid and costs reimbursed. If there is no recovery, the lawyer is not compensated for the hours spent on the case and often costs are not reimbursed by the client. In most instances, clients can also obtain representation on an hourly basis and pay a refundable fee and cost retainer whereby fees and costs are deducted from the retainer as they are incurred and any unsed balance is returned to the client. Fee and cost retainers often require an out-of-pocket expenditure of thousands of dollars, and clients must replentish the retainers when they are spent. Most insurance claim clients do not seek this type of representation because they do not want to incur the substantial expense and risk of litigation, and hourly fees often exceed the percentage fees paid under a contingency contract.

Your net recovery further suggests that a complaint was filed and answered, and that a 40% fee was paid and costs recovered pursuant to the fee schedule limitations and cost reimbursement requirements of The Florida Bar. (Florida attorneys are prohibited from writing-off case costs in contingency cases when there is a recovery because this is regarded as an improper solicitation of the client's business.) Your fees where probably based on any and all amounts recovered, including ALE, unless your contract excluded these amounts.

Lastly, your question suggests that your insurance contract did not include a fee provision and that you didn't qualify for any statutorily based fees. Furthermore, you didn't indicate how you case was resolved, i.e. settlement versus court decision, or whether either party filed a proposal of settlement which under certain circumsatnces provides a mechanism to partially recover fees and costs.

Based on the information you provided, your fees and costs appear appropriate.