Prejudgment Interest and Post-judgment Interest
Prejudgment interest is routinely a component of a claimant’s monetary damages. The claimant wants prejudgment interest on the principal amount due and owing. If no interest rate is set forth in the claimant’s contract, then the interest will accrue at the statutory rate. Then, once a judgment is entered, post-judgment interest will accrue on the judgment until it is paid. See Florida Statute s. 55.03.
Florida’s statutory interest rate is set by the Chief Financial Officer and published here.
For instance, the current statutory interest rate is 4.75% per annum (and it has been 4.75% for numerous years). This translates to a daily rate as a decimal of .000130137. Say you are owed $100,000 for 125 days. The calculation could be made two ways to determine the statutory interest rate on this amount for 125 days:
- $100,000 x 4.75% / 365 days in a year= $13.01 per day x 125 days = $1,626.25;
OR
- $100,000 x .000130137 = $13.01 per day x 125 days = $1,626.25.
Please contact David Adelstein at [email protected] or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.
