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I am the attorney who represented Daniel Stahl in his actions to eliminate Florida Statute Section 440.11. That is the section of the compensation law that makes workers' compensation the "exclusive remedy" for all on-the-job injuries. No attempt was made to have the entire act scrapped. Workers' compensation does work but for fewer and fewer injured workers with each set of "reforms." Since October 1974, every compensation enactment save one was intended to reduce benefits to injured workers. The one benefit that was increased was the death benefit. It was $100,000, and now it is $150,000. Someone please explain to me how the family of an injured worker, maybe a police officer or firefighter with a wife and two young children, can make it on what is about four years of compensation? Click here to read more:

The battle lines are being drawn. Or maybe they never went away. ​ But Florida senators Tuesday got a taste of the debate that will play out in the coming months among business, legal and labor groups as the Legislature looks at revamping the workers' compensation insurance system. ​ For business groups, the issue is about too much money going to attorneys who represent injured workers. For workers' attorneys, the issue is about insurers not properly paying claims. And for labor unions, the issue is about a system that has slashed benefits for people hurt on the job. Click here to read more:

While perusing the news early this morning I came across several articles related to reforms pending or proposed in two key states. One such article was discussing potential reforms in a state dominated by a Republican governor and legislature; another was discussing a state with a Republican Governor but a legislature permanently controlled by Democrats. The former article was largely focused on the efforts of the state Chamber of Commerce to protect their members. The latter article was written by a Democrat Representative of the State House. Despite these seemingly opposite political positions, the two articles sounded very much the same. Neither represented any imaginative approach to fixing the issues related to their specific systems. Quite honestly, they both could have been written about any state at any point over the last 30 years. Click here to read more:

It’s no secret to lawmakers, business owners and workers throughout the state that Florida’s workers’ compensation system is in need of reform. With the recent unnecessary rate hike in premiums for workers’ comp insurance, the state’s economy will suffer along with the looming potential for job loss. Recent coverage of the workers’ comp system has correctly focused on the lack of transparency and competition in the rate-making process. There is every indication that the quest for comprehensive workers’ comp reform, including a new rate-making process, will be one of the leading issues of the upcoming legislative session. Click here to read more: ​

After decades of managing costs for employers, it’s time for workers’ compensation professionals and public policymakers to turn their attention to the needs of injured workers and think of themselves more as players in a broader safety net, workers’ compensation experts were told last week. ​ Panelists and audience members at the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) conference in Boston stressed the need for a credible system for injured workers especially as other social safety nets including job security, employer-funded pensions and health insurance are being weakened. Click here to read more:

Legalized marijuana, whether medical or recreational, is finding its roots nationwide. In those states that have legalized medical and/or recreational marijuana, stakeholders across the workers compensation spectrum are keeping a close watch on how these new laws will impact their organizations and constituencies. Not the least among those affected are workers compensation insurers. Questions abound at both the state and federal levels as to how the changing legal landscape surrounding marijuana will translate into the workers compensation system. Click here to read more:

Rejecting arguments that Florida’s Sunshine Law was violated, an appeals court Tuesday upheld a 14.5 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance rates that began to hit businesses in December. ​ A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, in a 19-page decision, overturned a Leon County circuit judge’s ruling that would have invalidated the closely watched rate hike. Click here to read more:

Nearly a year after a Florida Supreme Court ruling rocked the state's workers' compensation insurance system, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill aimed at holding down insurance rates for businesses. ​ The House, however, will need to reach agreement with the Senate on a final plan before the scheduled May 5 end of the annual legislative session. That will require lawmakers to bridge differences on thorny issues, including limits on attorney fees. Click here to read more:

For the third time in 14 years, the Florida Legislature is taking up the issue of workers’ compensation attorneys’ fees. The question of attorneys’ fees for lawyers representing injured workers is a very touchy subject. The political diatribe against these fees in workers’ compensation claims typically laments “greedy lawyers” who work the system and how the fees increase cost to the system, but is that true? Lobbyists for Associated Industries of Florida, the Chamber of Commerce and others are always hammering away at the Florida Workers’ Compensation System, decrying its exorbitant costs and blaming attorneys fees as the cause. Jeremy Wallace of the Tampa Bay Times does a great job of debunking this is his recent column (click here to read it), as well as showing how difficult it has been and could be again for injured workers to find a lawyer to represent them. Click to Read More:

The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) delivered its 2017 workers compensation insurance rate filing to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR). Using the most recent pre-Castellanos/Westphal experience data available, NCCI has recommended an overall premium level decrease of 9.6%, effective January 1, 2018. The proposed reduction represents a continued improvement in claim frequency, more than an 8% decrease in Florida over the last two years, and is the primary driver of the decrease filed with the OIR. In addition to the improvements in loss experience, the filing includes a 1.9% decrease in expense provisions, including a proposed decrease to the Profit & Contingency provision from 2.75% to 2.0%. Florida is a “full rate” jurisdiction which means that the filing includes all components within the rate charged to the policyholder (i.e. general expenses, taxes, profit and contingency, commissions, etc.). Click here to read more:

Here’s what I see coming. Quick take – what happens this fall and winter will bump up premiums, injury rates and claims costs. Insurers will see rising premiums, claims service entities more work, and some insurers and re-insurers’ bottom lines will be hit hard. Companies focused on servicing work comp patients in Texas and Florida are going to be very busy. Hurricanes are the “why” Click here to read more:

Crisis, what crisis? Just a year after dire predictions that the state's economy was in peril due to rising insurance costs, Florida businesses could see an average 9.3 percent reduction in workers' compensation premiums in the coming year under a rate filing Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier will consider later this month. If approved, manufacturing businesses could see a 10.3 percent reduction in their workers' compensation rates, and rates for office and clerical businesses could decrease by 11.3 percent. Click here to read more: