The Florida Second District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s denial of the plaintiff’s entitlement to attorney’s fees and costs in a case handled by Kenneth Hall and David Burr of our Tampa office on behalf of a homeowner’s insurer. This first-party property case involved appraisal of a water damage claim where the insurance carrier issued an additional payment under the policy post-lawsuit. The ruling validated the carrier’s argument that the insured’s attorney was not owed statutory attorney’s fees, despite the insurer’s post-suit payment of additional policy proceeds, when he unnecessarily filed a lawsuit and improperly hindered the appraisal of the insured’s water damage claim. The carrier had requested appraisal twice pre-suit, and the plaintiff attempted to use the lawsuit to avoid appraisal, unsuccessfully. Ultimately, the additional payment was issued pursuant to the appraisal award it had sought pre-suit, foreclosing any argument by the plaintiff that the lawsuit was the necessary catalyst for any additional payment or that an award of attorney’s fees and costs was otherwise justified.