Press Release Summary: Workers' compensation rates will be dropping in January 2009. Lawyers are not thrilled with it as it all but obliterates an attorney's ability to represent their clients.
Press Release Body: Injured workers needing a qualified attorney to pursue a claim find themselves in a tricky situation. Their lawyers are now only eligible for contingency and not hourly fees.
In addition, a 2003 Workers' Compensation Reform report also suggests attorneys not be paid fees and costs for appealing an adverse medical decision unless the appeal is successful.
Florida's workers' compensation rates have been skyrocketing leaving Florida with the highest rates in the nation but the lowest payments for injured workers.
The report identified fraud; employer's ambivalence to rehire injured workers, problems with medical treatment and payment, a lack of safety programs and prolonged litigation over disputes as being the major drawbacks in the system.
The changes in fee structure are going to cause major heartaches. While having quicker decisions on medical benefits is a good goal, the manner the report suggests getting to that goal has some real problems.
The report indicated litigation was a significant cost in the system and yet was needed as an incentive to pay claims promptly. The solution was limiting attorney's fees to a contingency basis and eliminating the hourly fee provision outlined in the statute.
The crux of the problem with this change is that it will effectively eliminate legal representation for smaller cases and minor issues that make up 75 to 80 percent of a workers' compensation lawyers caseload. For example if an insurance carrier wrongly denies an injured worker the costs of an $850 MRI, it may take an attorney up to 30 hours or more to get the test approved by a compensation judge.
The new law would limit the attorney's payment to 20 percent of the $850. Attorneys are not going to take a case and work those kinds of hours for that kind of payment.
The reforms are not a cause for celebration for lawyers whose passion is helping injured workers settle their claims. It is against the spirit of most legal practices whose main goal is to serve their clients and not the system.
Other changes include increasing penalties for violating workers' compensation laws, tightening up the definition for total disability, require doctors treating injured workers be certified for workers' compensation work and increase payments to doctors.
There is some thought being given to also finding ways to encourage reluctant employers to rehire injured workers, limiting exemptions for construction companies, and bulk up the Department of Insurance offices that investigate fraud etc.
This may change in the near future. Currently there is a case before the Florida courts that will decide whether or not the current discriminatory attorney fee policy of the statute is unconstitutional.
To learn more, visit http://www.francislawgroup.com.
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2022
