Florida businesses could soon be paying almost 20 percent more for workers’ compensation coverage. In response to a recent decision from the Florida Supreme Court, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) filed a 17.1 percent rate increase with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) for all new, renewal and additional policies in effect on a “pro-rata” basis. ​ Its the first rate filing from NCCI, which files on behalf of 260 Florida workers’ comp insurers, since the Florida Supreme Court struck a devastating blow to the state’s workers’ compensation system. Click here to read more:

After a Florida Supreme Court ruling last month that struck down a limit on attorney's fees, workers' compensation insurance rates could go up 17.1 percent, according to a proposal submitted Friday to state regulators. ​ ​The National Council on Compensation Insurance, which submits rate proposals for the workers' compensation insurance industry, said the hike should take effect Aug. 1. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation will decide whether to approve the proposal, a process that could lead to a different rate change. Click here to read more:

The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled that the attorney fee provision in Florida's workers' compensation law was unconstitutional because it was not based on a reasonable fee. ​ In Castellanos v. Next Door, the court ruled 5-2 on April 28 that the 2009 statutory amendment to the fee provision, which had removed the term "reasonable," from the statute and which required attorney fee awards to be based solely on a sliding scale of the amount of benefits obtained, violated the due process guarantees of the Florida and Federal Constitutions. Click here to read more:

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s final electronic recordkeeping rule takes a stance against blanket employer policies that mandate post-injury drug testing. The final rule does not ban drug testing of employees, but it does prohibit employers from using drug testing or the threat of testing as a form of adverse action against employees who report injuries or illnesses, according to the final rule, published Wednesday and taking effect on Jan. 1, 2017. Click here to read more:

Talk of a special session to deal with Florida’s workers' compensation insurance appears to be nothing more than that. Last week two high-ranking Republicans in the Florida Cabinet openly asked whether the Legislature needs to hold a special session in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling tossing out caps on attorney fees. Click here to read more:

Employers are not exempt from federal requirements to record workplace safety injuries and illnesses involving intoxicated workers, even if post-accident testing reveals the employee was drunk at the time of the incident. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently issued an interpretation letter in response to a December 2015 inquiry outlining a scenario in which an employee sustained a hand injury, received treatment and was immediately given a drug test — the results of which indicated the employee was intoxicated by alcohol. Click here to read more:

In the wake of a Florida appellate court ruling, workers compensation professionals in the state are pondering how to fairly compensate attorneys without inviting additional litigation and increasing claim costs. Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee ruled last week in Martha Miles v. City of Edgewater Police Department et al.that the state's workers comp law violates injured workers' “rights to free speech, free association and petition.” Click here to read more:

The Florida Supreme Court declared today, April 28, 2016, the current system for the provision of attorney's fees' is unconstitutional in this case. The final ruling is attached. Click here to read more:

The 1st District Court of Appeal declared today, April 20, 2016, the current system for the provision of attorney's fees' is unconstitutional in this case. The final ruling is attached. Click here to read more:

Had their employer inspected an aerial lift properly, it might not have malfunctioned and surged forward, crushing one worker to death and severely injuring another as they removed rain gutters at a local car dealership on Sept. 30, 2015, investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration have determined. Read more here:

Higher fee schedules generally result in cases being shifted from group health coverage to workers compensation, according to preliminary findings by the Workers Compensation Research Institute. Depending on the injury, decisions about whether an injury is related to work may rely heavily on treating physician assessments, WCRI President and CEO Dr. John Ruser said Thursday during the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based group's 2016 WCRI Annual Issues & Research Conference in Boston. Click here to read more:

On April 16, 2016, the Florida Supreme Court will hear another in a long line of cases brought by plaintiffs’ lawyers trying to turn the clock back on Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Law. Before 2003, employers in Florida had some of the highest insurance costs in the entire country. Despite the high premiums, employees arguably received the least in benefits actually paid. During the subsequent years, numerous challenges to the 2003 reforms began working their way through the system. The essential idea behind the workers’ compensation system is that it provides employees injured on the job with fast, uncomplicated, and fair resolutions of claims, without any consideration of whether the employee was “at fault” for the injury. If an employee is injured, the employee receives compensation. The trade-off is that injured employees could not go to court and sue their employers. The workers’ compensation process is their “exclusive remedy.” Click here to read more: