Florida: 104-Week Limit on TTD Benefits Found Unconstitutional

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 in § 440.15(2), Fla. Stat.], violated article I, section 21, of the Florida Constitution, in that it deprived an injured worker of disability benefits for an indefinite period of time without allowing access to the state’s courts. Addressing the issue of the gradual demise of the workers’ side of workers’ compensation’s “grand bargain,” the majority added that the 104-week limit had created “a system of redress that no longer functions as a reasonable alternative to tort litigation” [p. 2 of the majority’s opinion].

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg, 2016 Fla. LEXIS 1197 (June 9, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 80.03.

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