Yesterday, the Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty issued a final order approving the new workers’ compensation rates for Florida that will be effective January 1st, 2009. The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) submits proposals to the state whenever rate changes are needed. The state of Florida reviews these proposals and issues new rates.

The new workers’ compensation rates in Florida will be reduced by an average of 18.6, which is even lower than the 14.1 percent proposed by NCCI. This is great news for business owners (estimated to save businesses $610 million this year) and it demonstrates the improvements in Florida’s comp market since the 2003 legislative reforms. At that time, Florida had the highest rates in the country on workers’ compensation and now it is no longer even in the top ten states. This will be the sixth reduction in rates since 2003 with a total impact of more than 60 percent. The current rates on workers compensation are still in effect for landscapers until January 1st and we will let you know the specifics rates for your industry as we approach that date.

This could potentially be the last rate decrease, as a recent Florida Supreme Court case (Murray vs. Mariners Health/Ace USA) was recently ruled in favor of increasing lawyers fees. Capping these fees was one of the biggest causes of decreased rates in that 2003 reform. The impact of this ruling on rates is still unkown and will be seen over the upcoming years. In the meanwhile, enjoy the reduced rates. If you would like a workers’ compensation quote for your landscaping business, please click the ‘Get an Insurance Quote’ tab in the menu at the top of our webpage.

The Agent Articles section of BearWiseLandscapers.com allows our insurance agents to provide practical information for landscapers. These agents can also obtain quotes and establish a custom insurance program for your landscaping business through our access to a variety of insurance carriers. This agent article is filed under 4 Workers' Compensation, and you can follow comments to it through the RSS 2.0 feed. Feel free to leave your own response below: