Our firm has written exhaustively on topics related to Florida’s workers’ compensation system. One of the recurring themes has been the steady loss of rights those in the workplace have experienced over the past 20 years or so. Here is a link to a superb law review article which addresses the subject. It was written in 2015…
ISSUE: Whether section 440.34 Florida Statutes, recently modified by the Florida Supreme Court in Castellanos v. Next Door Company, et al. (Fla., 2016), should be amended to eliminate insurance carrier-paid reasonable attorney’s fees. DISCUSSION: In 2009, the Florida Legislature barred judges of workers’ compensation claims (JCC) from awarding reasonable carrier-paid hourly fees to the lawyers…
Florida law requires every owner or registrant of an operable personal use motor vehicle to maintain Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and Property Damage (PD) – Liability insurance. See Florida Statute 627.733 Required security. While other types of coverage are available under the standard Florida motor vehicle insurance policy, these are the only two that are mandatory. While a premium…
On April 28, 2016, the Florida Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the mandatory fee schedule in section 440.34, Florida Statutes (2009), which eliminated the requirement of a reasonable attorney’s fee to a successful claimant. The ruling, in Castellanos v. Next Door Company, et al., sent shock waves through the workers’ compensation community. Many within the…
Republicans have held the reins of power in Florida since 1999. Unashamedly, they have abused that power to crush the rights of individuals in favor of Big Business. One of the areas which has experienced the greatest abuse is the state’s workers’ compensation system. Mercifully, thanks to the Florida Supreme Court the pendulum is beginning to…
I remember the night, in 1964, that a young Cassius Clay defeated world champion Sonny Liston at the Miami Beach Convention Center. I waited anxiously by the radio for a report of the outcome. He was expected to be eaten alive by the big bad bear Liston and become a…
On April 28, 2016, the Florida Supreme Court, in Castellanos v. Next Door Company, righted a wrong thirteen years in the making. The court decided that the due process edicts embodied in the Federal and Florida constitutions mandate that judges who decide workers’ compensation cases be allowed to award reasonable attorney’s fees to claimants attorneys. (Pre-Castellanos, judges of workers’ compensation claims (JCC) were…
The legal principle of respondent superior makes employers liable in civil damages for the negligence of their employees. The typical large-scale construction project is manned by workers employed by many different companies. However, the theories of vertical and horizontal immunity contained in Florida Statute Sections 440.10(1)(b)&(e) exempt construction site employers from respondent superior liability for worker on worker…
Over the years, but especially since 1998, it has gotten progressively more difficult for workers injured on the job to be fairly compensated under Florida’s workers’ compensation system. Republican governors (Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist, Rick Scott) backed by Republican-dominated legislatures have made every effort to limit and eliminate workers’ rights. Occasionally, the First…
While a recent Florida Supreme Court decision has leveled the playing field for injured workers in workers’ compensation cases — read Jeffrey P. Gale, P.A. // Another Jeb Bush Law Bites the Dust — a better remedy can sometimes be achieved through the civil justice system under negligence law principles. Florida Statute 440.11 immunizes most…