Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...er proceedings. Reversed and remanded. SILBERMAN and VILLANTI, JJ., Concur. . It is not clear from the parties' appendices when General Electric sought this prejudgment writ of replevin. . Bio-Mass filed a notice of supplemental authority, citing to section 682.031, Florida Statutes (2013), which was adopted in 2013 and became effective July 1, 2013. Even if section 682.031 were to apply to this case, subsection (2)(a) confirms that an arbitrator may provide equitable relief and subsection (2)(b) allows for a court to provide equitable relief when the arbitrator cannot adequately or timely do so, in whic...

petitions and motions in the trial court. Section 682.031 is entitled “Provisional remedies” and provides

...On April 21, 2017, the trial court entered an order granting BAP’s motion for sanctions and finding BAP was entitled to an award of all its reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred in the Arbitration. In so doing, the trial court concluded it had jurisdiction pursuant to sections 682.015 and 682.031, Florida Statutes (2017), as well as under the court’s inherent authority to impose sanctions for bad-faith conduct. The trial court then conducted an evidentiary hearing on May 30; August 14; and August 16, 2017, to determine the amount of fees and costs to which BAP was entitled....

...9 court should not review.”). Thus, the trial court was without authority to sanction Sea Vault for failing to pay the Arbitrator’s fee. Finally, the trial court’s reliance on sections 682.015 and 682.031 was misplaced....

...Neither grants the trial court authority to sanction Sea Vault. Chapter 682, Florida Statutes, is known as the “Revised Florida Arbitration Code.” Section 682.015, irrelevant to the issue before us, governs the procedure for serving petitions and motions in the trial court. Section 682.031 is entitled “Provisional remedies” and provides as follows: (1) Before an arbitrator is appointed and is authorized and able to act, the court, upon motion of a party to an arbitration proce...

...Subsection (2), applicable here, authorizes the Arbitrator to issue orders for provisional remedies and specifies that a party may move the court for a provisional remedy only “if the matter is urgent and the arbitrator is not able to act timely or the arbitrator cannot provide an adequate remedy.” § 682.031(2)(b), Fla....

...act timely or that the Arbitrator could not provide an adequate remedy. Three days later, BAP filed the Sanctions Motion in the Trial Court Action on March 17, 2017, seeking a second bite at the sanctions apple. Based on a plain reading of the statute, section 682.031(2)(b) does confer jurisdiction on the trial court to award sanctions simply because the Arbitrator declined to do so. I....