A dispute before the Florida Supreme Court looks like it could play by the book, specifically Black's Law Dictionary. At the heart of the case is a question on whether insurers have a duty to intervene on a client's behalf during pre-litigation efforts involving construction defect claims.

But it was the dictionary—and its definition of a legal “proceeding”—that took center stage during oral arguments Thursday, as one side sought to persuade the high court these pre-suit claims constituted judicial actions, and the other insisted they didn't.

The court peppered appellant attorney Adam Handfinger with questions aimed at deciphering whether the claims met the dictionary's parameters of “any procedural means for seeking redress from a tribunal or agency.”