Greetings, There has been a recent slew of cases addressing the 120 day rule, and estoppel arguments regarding the Employer/Carrier’s failure to deny part or all of a claim or injury. However, none of these cases had arguments or issues regarding the “backdoor” caveat to the 120 day rule. If E/C doesn’t deny the accident […]
Greetings and happy 2021! On December 30, the Federal Budget was signed into law (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021), and as a part of that bill was the Coronavirus relief measures (Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021) The bill is 5,393 pages, it is not a real page-turner. The bill provides for $600 stimulus […]
Greetings, A few reminder notes for the PTD season: Do not forget to adjust any PTD supplemental benefits effective 1/1/21. Date of accident after 10/1/2003- it’s a 3% increase. The formula is 3% x number of years since the accident x comp rate. PTD supplemental benefits end at age 62 (unless the accident prevented them […]
Greetings, The Dept. of Financial Services released the FL WC maximum compensation rate effective 1/1/21, its $1,011. This is for dates of accident after January 1. Also, a reminder that base PTD benefits plus PTD supplements cannot exceed the max CR for the year that it is paid. Memo attached on the new max CR. […]
Greetings, Don’t forget to scour everything you received on Wednesday and over the break for 1-time change requests. Watch out for anything referencing “an alternative” doctor or anything citing 440.13(2)(f). You must respond by 4:59 pm today, Monday, 11/30/20. DOAH has released its annual report, the usual treasure trove of statistics about the FL WC […]
Greetings, hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week. It’s been a year to remember, but don’t forget to stay on the look-out for 1-time changes. As a reminder, any requests received before 5 pm EST on Wednesday before Thanksgiving (11/25) need to be answered by 5 pm on Monday after Thanksgiving (11/30). Also: “Received” means […]
Greetings, hope everyone is doing well. Litigation is slowly starting to increase back to pre-pandemic levels, and so is the flood of PFB’s. Since April, the number of new litigated WC claims in Florida is down 13% compared to 2019. However, since September its only down 7%, so the numbers are increasing. Along with that […]
Greetings, the 1st DCA issued a ruling last week clarifying-ish Major Contributing Cause and the 120 day rule in Sanchez v. Yellow Transport, 1D19-4231. The crux of the case was the E/C had authorized treatment over the years for the “lumbar spine”, and had never delineated that they were accepting a lumbar strain or any […]
Greetings, the Florida Division of Workers’ Comp just put out a report summarizing the data from the COVID-19 claims through August 31. A link to the full report is below. My colleague We Heim in our Tampa office will be doing a deeper dive in an upcoming article, but here are a few things that […]
Greetings, One of the impacts of the Coronavirus on litigation is the delay on the ability to do the level of discovery that is really essential in defeating or driving down the value in WC claims. Getting our arms around a claimant’s past medical history, prior accidents, income, preexisting conditions, etc…are key components to our […]