U.S. Supreme Court Decides Major Personal Jurisdiction Case: Impact in Florida Remains to Be Seen
A recent United States Supreme Court decision on the scope...
Josh Lerner has a diverse practice including commercial litigation, professional liability, insurance coverage and appeals.
He represents national insurance companies in the Life, Disability and ERISA arena, as well as coverage matters, appeals and class actions. Josh also provides opinions and handles litigation in matters relating to coverage under commercial general liability, errors and omissions, garage liability and trucker’s liability policies. Working closely with SIU professionals, Josh prosecutes recovery actions arising from insurance fraud. Among the insureds Josh represents, are accountants, lawyers, securities broker-dealers, financial planners, IRA custodians and automobile dealers.
Josh also has a strong commercial litigation practice representing portfolio and private lenders and CMBS special servicers in commercial foreclosure litigation. He leads a firm wide team of lawyers that handles foreclosure and other real estate litigation matters from each of the firm’s five offices.
One of his core strengths is as a writer and editor. Josh received focused training in appellate practice while in law school and served as a law clerk on Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal. He has been counsel of record in more than fifty appeals. Josh served on the firm’s executive committee from 2008-2015 and then again from 2020-2022.
1987 – 1991, Brevard County, Florida Circuit Court,
(Part of team representing CPA firm and individual partners in action for securities fraud by approx. 600 individual investors; pursuant to case management order attended depositions for two weeks every four weeks for 3.5 years; confidential settlement)
Silver v. Florida Department of Transportation
1992 – 1995, Broward County, Florida Circuit Court
(Represented, prominent state wide law firm in malpractice action; summary judgment entered for defendant)
2001 – 2003, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
(Counsel for Defendant custodian of self-directed Individual Retirement Accounts in RICO action arising from massive investment fraud in sale of viatical settlements; damages sought in excess of nine figures; settled in six figures)
2005 -2006, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
(Counsel for Defendant manufacturer of diesel engines in breach of contract suit arising from plaintiff’s sale of 36 custom manufactured fire fighting vehicles to the Royal Netherlands Air Force, Royal Netherlands Navy and the Dutch National Airport Schiphol; confidential settlement)
2006 – 2007, Broward County, Florida Circuit Court
(Counsel for plaintiff private investor in action to establish de facto mortgage and foreclose same; judgment for plaintiff after trial)
2006 – 2010, Miami-Dade County Circuit Court
(Counsel for plaintiff private investor in action to foreclose mortgage and defend counterclaim, arising from failed business partnership with numerous transactions between the parties; Final Judgment for plaintiff after trial, notwithstanding defendant’s claim of forgery supported by expert testimony and no corresponding expert for plaintiff)
2010 – 2012,U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
(Counsel for defendant lien holder in action to quiet title; judgment for defendant after trial)
2012 – present, Hillsborough County, Florida Circuit Court
(Complex Business Litigation Divisiion) (counsel for plaintiff; architected and prosecuted suit against four former agents of Plaintiff and their sham entities for violation of state RICO statutes, including conspiracy, arising from scheme to rebate insurance commissions to insureds; confidential settlements against all defendants)
Miami-Dade County Circuit Court
(Complex Business Litigation Divisiion) (counsel for defendant, action against bank for failure to disclose/aiding bookkeeper embezzlement of more than $5 Million over five year period; scheduled for trial in April 2015)
Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, 2012 – present
(Counsel for plaintiff and third party counterdefendant, local Fox TV affiliate, in foreclosure action against adjoining propery owner and defense of counterclaim, culminating 10+ years of litigation regarding development and use of property adjoining client’s TV station; scheduled for trial in January 2015)
72 So. 3d 205 (Fla.App. 2 Dist. 2011)
329 Fed. Appx. 257 (11th Cir. 2009)
308 Fed. Appx. 389 (11th Cir. 2009)
997 So. 2d 1158 (Fla.App. 3 Dist. 2008)
985 So. 2d 1176 (Fla.App. 3 Dist. 2008)
934 So. 2d 518 (Fla. App. 3 Dist.2005)
905 So. 2d 84 (Fla. 2005)
129 Fed. Appx. 543 (11th Cir. 2005)
327 F. 3d 1307 (11th Cir. 2003)
763 So. 2d 536 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 2000)
743 So. 2d 129, 1999 WL 765942, 24 Fla. L. Weekly D2242, Fla. App. 3 Dist., September 29, 1999 (NO. 98-3002)
707 So. 2d 427 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 1998)
700 So. 2d 170 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 1997)
672 So. 2d 897 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 1996)
654 So. 2d 1244 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 1995)
602 So. 2d 983 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 1992)
581 So. 2d 1359 (Fla. App.1 Dist. 1991)
534 So. 2d 1187 (Fla. App. 4 Dist. 1988)
497 So. 2d 1324 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 1986)
492 So. 2d 1148 (Fla. App. 3 Dist. 1986)
RumbergerKirk attorneys Josh Lerner and Nicole Smith secured a final summary judgment in MSP Claims 1, LLC v. Infinity Auto Insurance Company in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Plaintiff, an alleged three times removed assignee of a Medicare Advantage Organization, sued for double damages under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act. Plaintiff claimed Infinity was a primary payer under Medicare but had failed to make primary payments for Medicare covered services provided to the original assignor’s enrollee. After the completion of discovery, both parties moved for summary judgment.
The original assignment required the approval of the original assignor to any subsequent assignments. Plaintiff testified in deposition that such approval had been secured orally in conversations between its lead counsel and representatives of the original assignor but there was no other evidence of that. And, plaintiff successfully obtained a protective order when Infinity sought to depose its counsel. In opposition to summary judgment, although it submitted an affidavit of its lawyer, plaintiff was unable to produce admissible evidence showing it received the required approval. This was one of a plethora of cases this and related plaintiffs have filed in Florida and elsewhere seeking recovery under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act for payments that, allegedly, others, not Medicare, should have paid.
691 So. 2d 629 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997)
Insurance Committee
University of Miami School of Law — J.D., 1984
Colorado College in Colorado Springs — B.A., History, 1980