Does Synergy mean FIGA never has to pay attorney's fees?

No. It holds that a fee obligation created by a negotiated pre-insolvency settlement is not within the coverage of the policy, and so is not a covered claim under section 631.54(4). The court reversed and remanded for further proceedings rather than directing judgment, so the stripped line remains contested below.

Is a public adjuster's commission a covered claim?

These decisions do not reach it. What they show is that placement matters: in Wilson the adjuster was named on the indemnity check, while in Simmons the commission was said to have been folded into the check designated for counsel, and the Third District remanded for an evidentiary hearing to determine which dollars were attorney's fees and which resulted from coverage. Section 631.54(4)(c) separately bars the association from paying public adjuster's fees in connection with a sinkhole loss.

Is the reasoning in Synergy binding on other Florida courts?

The result is the court's holding. Its reasoning carries less weight, because both judges other than the author concurred specially: Atkinson, J., wrote the opinion, Rothstein-Youakim, J., joined the decision to reverse on her own rationale, and Northcutt, J., disagreed with the opinion's reliance on Ramos. Cite the disposition and the statute rather than the lead opinion's analysis.

How do I paper a settlement against insolvency risk?

Allocate each professional's money to a line the policy itself would cover, and avoid bundling a public adjuster's commission into a check designated for attorney's fees. Once the carrier is declared insolvent, FIGA steps into the settlement and answers only for what section 631.54(4) reaches.

State legal — Florida

FIGA Won't Pay the Fee Line. Which Check Is Your Commission On?

The Second District held that a negotiated fee line sits outside the coverage, and a same-day Third District remand sends a public adjuster's commission to an evidentiary hearing because counsel said it rode in the attorney's check.

By Andy Rouhafzai, FounderSeptember 20, 20262 min read

Photo: Chad Davis / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

In short

In Florida Insurance Guaranty Association v. Synergy Contracting Group (Fla. 2d DCA Sept. 2, 2026), the Second District held that the $20,000 of a $90,000 pre-insolvency settlement allocated to the assignee's attorney was not a covered claim under Fla. Stat. section 631.54(4), because attorney's fees are not within the coverage of the policy. The Third and Fourth Districts have read the statute the same way, and two of the three judges wrote separately.

The Second District reversed a Pinellas County judgment on September 2 and held that the $20,000 of a $90,000 pre-insolvency settlement made payable to the assignee's law firm¹ was never a covered claim, because that obligation was for fees "not within the coverage of [the] insurance policy."¹

Section 631.54(4) reaches only a claim that arises out of and is within the coverage of the policy.² A negotiated fee line clears the first half and fails the second. The Third and Fourth Districts read it the same way.⁵⁴ Eight notices of supplemental authority came in while the case sat, six of them FIGA's.⁶

Read the disposition, not the reasoning: Atkinson, J., wrote, and both colleagues concurred specially, with Northcutt, J., rejecting the Ramos passage the lead opinion leans on.¹⁵ No rehearing motion or jurisdictional notice appears on the docket,⁶ and the case goes back, so the stripped line is contested on remand rather than erased.¹

The same day, the Third District decided Simmons, where counsel said a public adjuster's commission was folded into the $22,500 check to his firm;³ the trial court found the adjuster unpaid and the panel remanded for a hearing to separate fee dollars from coverage dollars.³ In Wilson the adjuster rode the $43,500 check with the policyholder and the mortgage company, and the disputed line was the $21,500 to the lawyers.⁴ Nothing in these opinions puts a public adjuster's commission outside the definition, though the statute already excludes public adjuster's fees on a sinkhole loss.² Which check your commission is written into decides whether it gets paid or proven up, and that is fixed at the settlement table, not after the receiver arrives.

Sources cited

Florida Insurance Guaranty Ass'n v. Synergy Contracting Group, Inc. a/a/o Arlette Schmidt, No. 2D2025-0999 (Fla. 2d DCA Sept. 2, 2026)— Florida Second District Court of Appeal
Fla. Stat. § 631.54 — Definitions (“covered claim”)— The Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine)
Florida Insurance Guaranty Ass'n v. Simmons, No. 3D25-0873 (Fla. 3d DCA Sept. 2, 2026)— Florida Third District Court of Appeal
Florida Insurance Guaranty Ass'n, Inc. v. Wilson, No. 4D2025-0232 (Fla. 4th DCA July 8, 2026)— Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal
Florida Insurance Guaranty Ass'n v. Ramos, No. 3D24-1003 (Fla. 3d DCA Jan. 14, 2026)— Florida Third District Court of Appeal
Florida Insurance Guaranty Ass'n v. Synergy Contracting Group, Inc., No. 2D2025-0999 — appellate docket— Florida Appellate Court Information System (ACIS)

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