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Morgan’s Tip of the Week- Unemployment benefits, offsets and bar to indemnity

Greetings, I had a few questions recently about claimant’s collecting Unemployment benefits while claiming lost wages in Florida WC.     Florida has returned to its pre-Covid level of Unemployment benefits (UE).   2024 Claim Maximums: 12 weeks The Florida WC statute addresses how UE is handled when claiming TTD/TPD in 440.15(10) (statute below).  Your employer should have […]

EG- Gazette- Spring 2024

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Best Practices for Minimizing Attorney Fee Exposure By: Christian Roig, Associate – Miami, FL Georgia Posted Panel of Physicians: Best Friend or Worst Enemy? By: Gabe Mobley, Associate – Atlanta, GA Major Contributing Cause: An Investigation   By: Kayli Marston, Associate– West Palm Beach, FL Maintaining a Well-Oiled Defense: Preventing Backfires in Denials and Delay […]

February Briefly Speaking 2024

Editor: Felicia Wymer, Partner, Pensacola Office Authors: Travis Coleman, Junior Partner, Tampa Office and Libby Nelson, Associate, Orlando Office Jeanette Duffy v. JetBlue Airways Corporation and Sedgwick, CMS JCC Jacobs: Orlando District                                     Order Date: 01/26/2023 OJCC Case: 22-006075JEJ                                         Date of Accident: 02/05/2022   JCC Order: Click Here Briefly: Arising out of/Course & […]

Morgan’s Tip of the Week- Independent Contractors and FL WC

Greetings, I have received a few questions about what impact the US Dept Of Labor’s new rule on Independent Contractors will have on FL Workers’ Comp.  The DOL’s rule was released on 1/10/24, and goes into effect on 3/11/24, a link to the press release and the actual rule are at the bottom. The DOL […]

Morgan’s Tip of the Week- Important Atty Fee Decision

Greetings, Last week the Florida 1st DCA issued a long-awaited ruling regarding claimant’s attorney fees in Rudolph v. Darrien Smith/Home Depot, 1D2022-1627. https://1dca.flcourts.gov/content/download/1679907/opinion/Opinion_2022-1627.pdf The crux of the case was when can a JCC award hourly fees instead of the guideline fee, if the JCC finds the guideline fee to be too high. In Smith, the […]

Morgan’s Tip of the Week- Getting timely medical reports

Greetings, Sometimes, it can be difficult to obtain medical records and DWC-25’s timely from doctors’ offices so we can ensure we are following the work status and not creating over or underpayments.  Well, the FL WC statute (along with the Dept of Financial Services regulations) does give you some guidance on how you can encourage […]

January Briefly Speaking

Editor: Felicia Wymer Authors: Travis Coleman and Libby Nelson Alicia Luna Luna v. Southern Meat Sales, Inc. and Bridgefield Casualty Insurance Company JCC Anderson: Orlando District                                                                   Order date: November 29, 2023 OJCC Case: 22-028226WWA                                                                          Date of Accident: March 1, 2022 JCC Order: Click Here Briefly: Misrepresentation   Summary: The Claimant slipped and fell down a […]

Morgan’s Tip of the Week- Indemnity during gaps in treatment

Greetings, An issue comes up when there is a gap in treatment, resulting in a gap in indemnity benefits.   The most common gaps I see are: From a pure technical claims handling standpoint, you do not owe the indemnity during any of these gaps IF that is all the evidence/information you have at that point. […]

Morgan’s Tip of the Week- PFB responses

Greetings and Happy New Year, I have been asked to do a refresher on responding to PFB’s.  (For those of you that want more details, we do offer a CEU that we can present on this topic). Here are a few key things to remember: Of note, you can file an amended PFB response within […]

Morgan’s Tip of the Week- Annual FL WC stats

Greetings, DOAH (Division of Administrative Hearings) just published their annual report, and it is a great study of where WC is today in Florida.  Below is a link to the report, but do not hit print unless you have a spare ream of paper just laying around, it is 282 pages. The study covers DOAH’s […]