Florida: Judge Errs in Failing to Award $2,000 Statutory Cash Advance

In a split decision, a Florida appellate court held that a claimant’s request for a $2,000 advance pursuant to § 440.20(12), Fla. Stat., should have been granted where claimant’s uncontroverted testimony was that she was off work for “more than 18 months on sick leave,” that she returned to work at a reduction in total pay, and that an advance “would put me up to date … so that I could put food in my refrigerator, for one thing, gas in my car, and to pay my bills.” According to the majority, the JCC’s denial, apparently because the JCC felt that some of the claimant’s bills were ”luxury expenses,“ was not a proper factor to be considered. Small advances under the statute were merely a ”stopgap." Larger advances did require the sort of inquiry made by the JCC, but as to the $2,000 advance, the burden of proof on the claimant was lighter. The dissent indicated that the case presented nothing more than a failure of proof on Claimant’s part.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Bonner v. Miami Dade Public Schools, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 15590 (Oct. 7, 2014) [2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 15590 (Oct. 7, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 132.07 [132.07]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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