Greetings, hope everyone is well and staying sane. I am receiving several daily questions about compensability of COVID-19 claims under 440.151 Occupational Disease. A point to remember, unless someone actual has contracted the virus, there is no “injury” and therefore no claim. And even after, it then needs to be evaluated as to whether or […]
Greetings, I hope you are doing as well as can be under the circumstances. I have received a number of questions about the status of the FL WC system. In essence it is still functioning on schedule. All State Mediations are occurring by phone through 4/30. Motion hearings are by phone as well. Private mediations […]
Greetings, On 4/6, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (which all of you know from paying close attention during our 5 hr law and ethics CEU) issued an informational memo: TO ALL INSURERS AND ENTITIES REGULATED BY THE FLORIDA OFFICE OF INSURANCE REGULATION AUTHORIZED TO WRITE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION INSURANCE regarding COVID-19 and WC. Basically it […]
Greetings, The CFO of Florida yesterday put out the attached directive extending WC coverage to “Frontline State Employees” who have tested positive for COVID-19 as an occupational disease. The Directive states in essence it is a presumption of compensability unless the State of Florida can show by preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not) […]
Greetings, What’s new? I hope everyone is managing to get through this stressful time. We will get back to normal…eventually. Promise. Florida WC law provides for a reduction/offset in benefits if the claimant is receiving unemployment benefits (UE). Last week, a record number of people filed for unemployment benefits, 3.3 million people nationwide. Florida had […]
Greetings, I hope all of you are healthy, and managing to cope with the stress of this temporarily crazy world. Remember, this is temporary, we will get through it. Thought I would share a few of the Florida questions that I have been getting about various situations due to the…uh….situation. TPD and economic layoffs- If […]
Greetings, Well, I have started getting questions about COVID-19, the corona virus, and whether this could be compensable under Florida WC. There are two “presumptive” cases of the virus in Florida, meaning the formal diagnosis has not be 100% verified yet. In general, diseases and sicknesses are excluded from WC. However, the statute does give […]
Greetings, Last week, the 1st DCA addressed the issue of the counting of 30 days after a PFB is filed for purpose of claimant attorney fee entitlement in Zenith v. Barrizonte-Cruz (Click Here). Under 440.34(3), a claimant’s attorney is not entitled to a carrier-paid fee for providing benefits untimely “until 30 days after the date […]
Greetings, Everyone has always anecdotally known that S. Florida is more litigious, but I have never seen any true analysis of the situation. The few cases I have handled over the years down there certainly have attested to a very different environment. It got me to thinking that we do have actual statistics by venue […]
Greetings, one of the more frustrating aspects of the current WC law is a “later-proved benefit”, thus resulting in claimant attorney fees. For example, the claimant files a PFB for TPD. The adjuster denies it because there is no lost wages. Then at some later point, while the PFB is still pending, TPD becomes due, […]