... Section 57.105 "without merit" standard distinguished, for Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.730(c) sanctions for alleged breach of or failure to perform under a Mediation Agreement. (Rule 1.730(c) appears on page 83 of the above link to the Florida Bar website.)
On rehearing, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal refined "the inequitable conduct doctrine" in Cox v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 88 So. 3d 1048 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012), Download Cox v. Great American Insurance Co. (Fla. 4th DCA Case No. 4D10-5155.rehg May 30, 2012), PUBLIC ACCESS. The appellate court equated the required showing of "bad faith" which permits an award of attorney's fees as sanctions under the inequitable conduct doctrine, with the imposition of attorney's fees as a sanction on a party's attorney. The appellate court observed that both situations require express and detailed factual findings of specific acts of bad faith conduct, which resulted in an increase in attorney's fees unnecessarily incurred by the moving party. Cox v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 88 So. 3d 1048, 1049 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012). Whatever the basis of the attorney's fees assessment, procedural law established by the Supreme Court of Florida includes in such cases, according to the Fourth District, a "requirement of specificity". Cox v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 88 So. 3d 1048, 1049 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012).
The Cox case, however, was measured by a different substantive standard entirely for assessing attorney's fees as a sanction, the Fourth District held. That case involved a request for attorney's fees as sanctions under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.730(c) (see page 83 of this link) for alleged breach of or failure to perform under a Mediation Agreement. The Fourth District 'indicated' that the appropriate standard was the same which measures the assessment of attorney's fees under Fla. Stat. ยง 57.105 for meritless litigation. Although the Fourth District did not seem to expressly embrace that standard in this case, the Fourth District did apply it and adhered to its previous ruling reversing a final judgment awarding attorney's fees as a sanction, and finding "failure to comply with the procedural requirement of specificity". Cox v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 88 So. 3d 1048, 1049-50 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012).
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