Morgan’s Tip of the Week- FL litigation stats

Greetings,

The FL Division of Workers’ Compensation has a searchable database that tracks the number of  WC claims that are reported to them.  (Medical only claims that never settle or get an impairment rating are NOT part of the numbers because they are not reported to the Division).

So how many WC lost-time claims get litigated?   

It’s still too early to look at 2024 as litigated claims are still be filed now for 2024 accident dates, but based on the average of 2022 and 2023:

Number of overall claimsNumber of Litigated claims% LitigatedAvg Settlement
2022-2023125,92863,71751%$21,757

So just over 50% of all lost-time claims (TTD, TPD, PTD, death claims, impairment benefits, settlement), wind up in litigation.   It is a good reminder to do everything we can to prevent lost-time on claims because that will decrease the chances of litigation.

The Division of WC database is searchable not only for overall claims, but also by injury type, industry, etc… here is the link:

https://dwcdataportal.fldfs.com/STATSSearch.aspx

And here is the link to DOAH for litigated cases:

https://www.jcc.state.fl.us/JCC/searchJCC/searchCases.asp

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Sincerely,

Morgan Indek | Managing Partner