Search Our Site

The public will suffer irreparable harm unless a state appeal court stays Florida’s 14.5 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance premiums, attorneys challenging the increase said in court papers this week. ​ The National Council on Compensation Insurance, or NCCI, “cannot possibly demonstrate a likelihood of prevailing on appeal with respect to the trial court’s detailed, well-reasoned 73-page final judgment, which is founded upon fundamental open-government principles of Florida law,” plaintiffs attorney John Shubin argued. Click here to read more:

As debate opened Tuesday over Florida’s 14.5 percent increase in workers’ compensation premiums, trial attorneys on the Florida Senate’s Banking and Insurance Committee targeted the group that proposes insurance rates for carriers in the state. ​ Sens. Greg Steube and Gary Farmer Jr., both attorneys, endeavored to shift the focus from attorney fees — widely blamed for rising workers’ comp rates — and onto the need for carriers to compete rather than charge common rates. Click here to read more:

State regulators and an organization that proposes workers’ compensation coverage rates in Florida defended themselves in pleadings to a state appeals court this week, seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that they had violated open-government laws. ​Attorneys for the National Council on Compensation Insurance, or NCCI, submitted their arguments in a brief filed Wednesday with the 1st District Court of Appeal. The state office of Insurance Regulation is also a party to the suit, filed by Miami workers’ compensation attorney James Fee. Click here to read more:

The Senate released its version of a workers’ compensation fix Friday, and the measure would lift limits on attorney fees in some cases and require insurance companies to file their own rates, rather than let a ratings agency do the job for them. The House released a draft, labeled “for discussion at a workshop March 7,” that also would allow higher attorney fees and allow insurers to compete on rates. Click here to read more: ​

In a vote of 20 to 9, the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would alter the state’s workers’ compensation laws. The 34-page bill, which had been impeded on multiple occasions, was reintroduced to the House with several new amendments. Should the bill be signed into law, it will affect a number of different statutes including but not limited to attorney fee schedules, the extension of benefit periods, the program’s enrollment process and medical reimbursement. Click here to read more: ​

With the House version of workers’ compensation reform, our state legislators are dangerously close to repeating the mistakes of the past. We cannot have a lopsided system that creates a chasm between the army of lawyers and executives who represent workers’ comp insurance companies and the injured worker who needs a competent lawyer to fight for the benefits that their employer has purchased. ​ Thankfully, the Florida Senate has taken the lead in advocating for effective, meaningful reforms that we know to be constitutional. We must always keep in mind that workers’ compensation laws are designed to ensure the quick and efficient delivery of medical benefits to injured workers so they can recover from their injuries and return to work. The laws are not designed to grant one side a competitive advantage in the court system. Families that depend on the livelihoods of injured workers are counting on a fair system that will give them an avenue for redress when they are wrongly denied benefits. Click here to read more: ​

Employee dissatisfaction with Florida’s workers’ compensation system emerged as an issue during a House committee hearing Wednesday, amid suggestions they deserve more choice over their treating physicians. Rep. George Moraitis Jr. recalled a meeting with firefighters who complained of their medical treatment under the system. ​“We really need to have a solution that helps the workers,” he said. ​ Click here to read more:

The Naples Daily News brought the heat on this one. Journalist Maria Perez debuted a yearlong harrowing investigation this week that uncovered the commonplace practice of Florida staff leasing companies for high-risk jobs hiring undocumented immigrant workers and axing them without compensation when they became injured. The piece tells the story of Abednego de la Cruz, who sliced his finger to the bone cutting concrete blocks in Tallahassee. He was fired and was refused medical care by his employer, Holiday-based SouthEast Personnel Leasing. “Instead, his employer called the police and had him arrested,” Perez reported. He was undocumented and now faces deportation, fearing he will not be able to raise his daughter whom was born in the U.S. Click to read more:

A former employee is suing SunShine Cleaning Systems Inc. for alleged retaliation. Samuel Oge filed a complaint on Aug. 3 in the Broward County Circuit Court, alleging that the defendant breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing. According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that he suffered loss of employment, loss of income, worsening of his injury, humiliation and embarrassment on March 3 due to the defendant allegedly terminating his employment in retaliation for the plaintiff's claim for workers' compensation benefits due to an injury he allegedly sustained in the scope of his employment. Click here to read more:

An Orange County man is suing a Maitland company, alleging violation of workers compensation acts. Oscar Moquette filed a complaint Nov. 28 in Orange County Circuit Court against Skansa-Granite-Lane, alleging violation of the Florida Workers' Compensation Law. Click here to read more:

A ‘clean’ workers’ compensation bill is headed to the House floor after the Commerce Committee rejected a series of amendments pitched as worker-friendly Tuesday. The bill (PCB COM 18-01) cleared the panel on a vote of 18-8. It closely follows legislation the full House approved during the spring Legislative Session, in that it encourages injured workers and carriers — and their attorneys — to attempt to resolve disputes amicably. Click here to read more:

It looks like Sen. Gary Farmer has been keeping up with the news. ProPublica and the Naples Daily News both published in-depth investigations last year that highlighted a state law used by businesses and insurers to profit from undocumented workers and then dump them after they’re injured. Click to read more: