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:

A filing up for review this month by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation could reduce workers' compensation premiums by just over 9 percent for businesses. Workers' compensation premiums totaled about $3.8 billion in 2016, according to the NCCI. Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner David Altmaier is expected to consider the filing by the end of the month. Click here to read more:

Fewer workers are filing workers’ compensation claims, helping lower the costs Florida employers will pay for insurance next year. How big of a reduction in rates will be decided by Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, who held a rate hearing Wednesday in Tallahassee. The National Council on Compensation Insurance, which proposes rates on behalf of all workers’ compensation carriers, has proposed an overall average 9.6 percent reduction in premiums for 2018. Click here to read more:

State Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier has ordered a 9.8 percent decrease in the premiums businesses pay for workers' compensation insurance beginning next year. He also ordered the National Council on Compensation Insurance to include in all future recommended rate filings a “quantitative analysis” of the impact that eliminating attorney-fee caps have had on the workers' compensation system. NCCI is an organization that files recommended rates on behalf of insurance companies. Click here to read more:

Medical payments per workers’ compensation claim in Florida remained stable in 2015 following moderate growth from 2010 through 2014, according to a recent study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The study, CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks for Florida, 18th Edition, examined medical payments, prices, and utilization in Florida and compared them with 17 other states over a period from 2010 through 2015. Click here to read more:

Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis today announced the recent arrest of Jeovane Felizardo, owner of JJF Construction Services, LLC, after a workers' compensation fraud investigation revealed that Felizardo allegedly used various local money service businesses to cash checks in an alleged attempt to illegally conceal his total payroll from his workers’ compensation insurance provider to avoid higher premium costs. Click to read more:

After Abednego de la Cruz sliced his finger to the bone cutting concrete blocks while building a fire station in Tallahassee, his boss fired him and refused continued medical care for his injury. De la Cruz, a 37-year-old father whose dominant hand remains damaged, thought he could rely on the workers’ compensation system, which requires employers to cover medical care and lost wages for injured employees. Instead, his employer called the police and had him arrested. The undocumented immigrant now faces almost certain deportation and fears he won’t be able to raise his 1-year-old, U.S.-born daughter. Click to Read More:

A Tallahassee business owner was arrested for failing to provide the state-mandated workers' compensation benefits to his employees. Michele Andrea Bertoldi, 48, was released from the Leon County Detention Center on Sunday on a $5,000 bond. Click to read more:

A Florida construction company owner has been arrested after allegedly providing fictitious information when applying for workers’ compensation insurance coverage to obtain a lower premium, according to a statement from Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. Maria Cristina Romero Zelaya, owner of Miochosis Construction, Inc. is accused of illegally avoiding paying more than $700,000 in premium payments and leaving her employees uninsured and vulnerable to workplace injuries, the statement says. Click to read more: