The Florida Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state's offer-of-judgment statute does not require that the party seeking fees prevail in the proceeding for it to be entitled to attorney fees under the statute, and therefore the offer-of-judgment statute "is not a prevailing-party statute."

Javier A. Lopez, a partner at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton in Coral Gables, is an attorney-fees expert independent of the Supreme Court ruling on the "recurring issue of law regarding Florida's offer-of-judgment statute," based on the case in which the plaintiff, Brind Coates, sued the defendant, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., for the wrongful death of her sister, Lois Stuckey.