In a deeply divided decision, a Florida court reversed an award of benefits to a home-based worker (working in Arizona) who tripped over her dog as she reached for a coffee cup during a brief break in her daily work activities. The court agreed that the course...
Where an insurance broker secured a policy of workers’ compensation insurance for a client an hour or so after one of the client’s employee had suffered a work-related accident, without disclosing to the carrier that the accident and injury had occurred...
A Florida appellate court affirmed an order by a Judge of Compensation Claims that denied a workers’ compensation claimant’s request for a $2,000 advance pursuant to § 440.20(12)(c), Fla. Stat., because she failed to establish a financial need...
By Robert J. Grace, Jr., Esq. & Lyle Platt, Esq. Since publication of our last edition of Dubreuil’s Florida Workers’ Compensation Handbook (LexisNexis), legislative activity was confined to a popularly supported bill regarding first responders...
The Judge of Compensation Claims appropriately disregarded the expert medical advisor’s (EMA’s) opinion that a claimant had a permanent impairment rating of at least 15 percent, as provided in the Class 2 classification of arrhythmias under the 1996...
Florida’s workers’ compensation fraud statute, § 440.105(4), Fla. Stat., does not require a physician to “interrogate” the claimant regarding what may have been false or misleading statements provided by the claimant to the physician...
Stressing that substantive rights under Florida workers’ compensation law are established by the date of the accident and that the 1988 law, which would apply in the instant case, did not contain any provision that could compel a claimant to undergo a functional...
A Florida trial court erred when it dismissed a former employee’s complaint against her former employer for failing to state a cause of action in her retaliatory discharge civil action [see § 440.205, Fla. Stat.], where she alleged that from the time...
At the National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference last November, Brad Bleakney, a partner with Bleakney & Troiani, and Lora Northen, a Shareholder with Capehart Scatchard, led a seminar on recent trends in workers’ compensation....
§ 440.13(5)(e), Fla. Stat., by its plain language, excludes from workers’ compensation proceedings the medical opinions of any doctor (other than independent medical examiners and expert medical advisors) who has not been authorized by the employer/carrier...
Comp Insurance Profitable, At Least For the Moment . CA: DWC Posts Interim Report on Evidence-Based Comp Drug Formulary . CA: WCIRB Submits 1/1/2017 Regulatory Filing . CA: WCIRB Releases Report on 2015 Losses and Expenses . CA: Settlement May Net Lyft...
Wearable Devices May Reduce Injuries in Extreme Environments . Nat’l Safety Council: 4,000 Die Every Year at Work . Alternative Pain Treatment Easier Said than Done . SHRM Posts 2016 Benefits Study . Employers Curtailing Wellness Benefits . Businesses...
In a split decision, the Supreme Court of Florida struck down the state’s 104-week limit on TTD benefits for injured workers who remain totally disabled after the capped time period, but who have not yet reached MMI. The majority held the limit [set forth...
By Robert J. Grace, Jr., Esq., The Bleakley Bavol Law Firm, and Lyle Platt, Esq., Clarke & Platt, P.A. For two years now we have written about a collection of cases which represent the most closely watched and eagerly anticipated workers’ compensation...
Statements made by a workers’ compensation claimant to her attorney that she felt like “punching the lights” out of a co-worker, whom the claimant felt had intentionally caused the claimant injury at work, were not the sort of acts that constituted...