The ``dream team'' of high-powered trial attorneys who helped Florida win the historic settlement with Big Tobacco a year ago will finally get their first paycheck -- more than $9 million for each of the 11 law firms.

A settlement, at least a temporary one, of the acrimonious fight over money between the state and the lawyers is expected to be announced today in Tallahaseee.

The deal would make the payment of attorney fees subject to arbitration to be held in November. If the lawyers don't like the award the arbitration panel comes up with, they can reject it and go back to court.

They'll get $100 million in ``good faith'' money within the next week. The ultimate amount is undecided. ``I'll know it when I see it,'' Tampa attorney Steven Yerrid said. ``I don't know what it is, but when a reasonable fee is forthcoming, I will know it.''

The original settlement agreement set up a similar method to figure out how much the attorneys would get -- a three-member arbitration panel would decide.

The govenor's office called the proposed 52-page agreement positive and ``mutually satisfying.'' ``We're confident that the lawyers will be well compensated, as they should be,'' said Edie Ousley, a spokeswoman for Gov. Lawton Chiles.

The difference with today's agreement is that lawyers can reject it if they don't like it. The panel will still be made up of three people. One will be chosen by the tobacco industry, one by the lawyers, and the third by both sides.

The trial team wanted the state to pay what it promised in a contract with the lawyers four years ago -- 25 percent all money recovered from the cigarette industry. The tobacco lawsuit was settled Aug. 25, 1997, for $11 billion. The state will get an extra $2 billion thanks to successful lawsuits against the industry in other states.

Gov. Lawton Chiles and others said 25 percent fees were too high. Five of the 11-lawyer team sued to enforce the contract. They were harshly criticized by politicians and others across the nation. Even the judge in the case, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold Cohen, called the potential fees ``unconscionable.''

At least eight of the 11 lawyers had signed the agreement by Wednesday afternoon. Bob Montgomery of West Palm Beach, Sheldon Schlesinger of Fort Lauderdale, and Bob Kerrigan of Pensacola hadn't signed.

Montgomery said he won't sign. He wants the 25 percent that's in the contract. That money would be paid out over 25 years.

``This is deja vu all over again,'' he said. ``I signed a contract, it's a legal document made with the chief executive of the state. All the king's horses and all the king's men and the governor and the cabinet ain't gonna change that.''

Montgomery said the issue of whether the trial attorneys should get 25 percent will be before the Florida Supreme Court on Nov. 5.

``Why all this rush to judgment?'' he said. ``This is an effort to usurp the power of the Supreme Court.''