My question involves business law in the state of: FL

I'm going to write this out as a bare facts version first, and then after give more of an account of what happened. About 4 years ago, I had a fire in my home. I had a contractor recommended to me via the FD. I had insurance, and the insurance adjuster and the contractor went round in circles for weeks over cost. The adjuster kept submitting a detailed listing of what he thought things should cost - for example - 3 ft of dry wall at $1.00 and foot, and the contractor would counter with 6 ft of dry wall at $3.00 a foot. About 6 weeks after the fire, the contractor did some work and sent me a bill for $28,000 + which I never paid, never spoke to him again, but immediately got a lawyer. I got another contractor to finish the work. The original contractor put a lien on my house, but nothing else, it expired a year later. About 2 years after the bill was presented, I was handed a lawsuit. My lawyer wrote some kind of dismissal letter to the court maybe 1.5 - 2 years ago, and nothing was ever followed up by the contracotr. Last week, my lawyer called me to tell me apparently some kind of date must have come up on the calendar, because he got a notice to go to court for something - I guess whether the suit should continue or not.

Some details I think are important, but I don't know are the following. This contractor had never worked with an insurance company at all and didn't seem to understand that all work he was going to do needed to be approved first. This, and the fact that I explained I had just bought the house and didn't have a nickel to my name was explained to him muliple times. The insurance adjuster was always in the picture from the get go, we had multiple meetings and walk throughs, and discussions with him. Basically, the insurance wanted to pay $90K for the damage, and the contractor initially wanted $260K - more than I payed for the house, and it was really just a kitchen fire with a lot of smoke and water damage. Just for him to go in and do "demo" work to get more of a feel of what all the damage was, he wanted 10K - the adjuster was only willing give him 1K. Finally - and this is I specifically remember - I have a really good memory about everything that happened- the two of them came to an agreement - the adjuster acquiesed and the contractor would proceed to do demo work, at the price of 3K - and from there he could get a better idea of how much damage there was and total price. We were standing in the dining room, and we all shook on it. He was only supposed to do 3K worth of work, and then get an idea of what the whole thing would cost. Imagine my shock then when he did his demo work, , and I got a bill for 10x what the amount agreed to was, and almost 1/3 of what the insurance company wanted to pay for fixing the whole house - and it wasn't fixed at all!

I have all the paper work from the insurance company - all the adjusted numbers, etc, and what would be paid for what. I also have a number of adjusted bids of how much the contractor wanted - from $260K - $160 K (which is what it ended up costing!) Before the lowest bid was put in, I went to lunch with the contractor and the engineer - who went over everything in the first bid, and explained everything was inflated 3-4X what it would cost! I think, and could be wrong, he even took the adjuster aside and told him the same thing. I had two people look at his billing - both who had been in the business and had some questions over some of the things billed for - renting a scaffold for 3 days, puchasing a camera to take pictures - for example, the rest I don't remember, but I do know they both saw my house and said there was no way demo work should even cost 3K to begin with.

In negotiations with my lawyer, his lawyer stated that instead of me paying the 28K, they would accept payment of my house instead! I payed over 200K for the house! I never did pay him the 3K I owe him - which I admit I did (do) owe him - for a couple of reasons. One now I had to put out money for a lawyer, and two, there is a whole thing with the insurance company and mortgae company and getting the money - you have to submit the bill for the payment, it's complicated, and probably irrelevent. I also never spoke with him again, although I did call the office for additional back up bills for his billing. He tried calling me numerous times, even though my lawyer specifically told him to only contact me through him. Even though I have now payed my lawyer about 3K, and I would be happy to settle my debt with him, for the amount we agreed to.

The last thing - which is the worst thing. Even though from the getgo, I explained to him how things were going to work, all the money had to be pre-approved by the insurance company, etc., he met with the insurance adjuster, he would not do any work whatsoever - not even the demo - unless I signed a contract - which turned out to be a cost plus, which I did.

The thing is, I don't have 28K - I never have. I can pay him 3K, which as I said, I would. I've always payed my lawyer in a timely fashion, I pay all my debts, I have excellent credit, I'm not someone who just doesn't pay for no reason, and I've never been in this situation before. Obviously, I feel like I"m in the right, and I feel I've been taken advantage of by a sheister and scr*w*d over royally. Do I stand a chance going to court on this?