There has been a lot of activity on the Florida workers’ compensation front over the past few years and it has increased in 2009 with two rates changes so far this year (one rate change effective January 1st and the other effective April 1st). To bring you up to date, Florida had the highest workers’ compensation rates in the country in 2003. There were some major reforms to the system at that time which resulted in over a 60% decrease in rates entering into 2009. Part of the reform that was effective in controlling the cost of workers’ compensation claims was to limit the amount of fees that claimants’ lawyers could charge for small recoveries. This was reversed last fall by a Florida Supreme Court case of Emma Murray v. Mariner Health in which the court ruled that lawyers should not have their fees limited to the size of the recovery instead of their normal hourly fees. Florida responded with a mid-year increase in the 2009 rates.

Since this time, the Florida Congress has been in session and has tried to address the issue. They passed a bill called House Bill 903 that responded to the Emma Murray decision by reinstating the percentage of benefits method of calculating attorney fees rather than considering other criteria such as the lawyers’ time spent on a case, the novelty issues involved in the litigation, and the level of expertise in the field of workers’ compensation that the attorney possessed. This bill in effect overturned the Emma Murray decision by the Florida Supreme Court.

The effective date of this bill is July 1st, 2009. The rate increase that was effective April 1st, will be discontinued as of July 1st and the new workers’ compensation rates will be the same as those issued on January 1st.

On top of all these changes is the fact that although House Bill 903 did succeed in once again lowering the workers’ compensation rates, it did not decide the constitutionality of the different methodologies for calculating attorneys’ fees in workers’ compensation cases. Many people anticipate it only to be a short time before another case comes along to challenge the new bill. This issue will most certainly be considered by the Supreme Court at some future date and it still remains questionable as to how injured worker attorney’s fees will be paid. When the bill gets overturned, the rates will inevitably rise again. But for now, enjoy the new lower rates that will be effective on July 1st, 2009. I will publish another article before then with those new rates.

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