Greetings,

DOAH, the entity that manages Florida’s WC litigation, has released its 2023-2024 annual report (which spans from July 1, 2023- June 30, 2024).   It is a great overview of the FL WC system.  

Some key stats that paint a picture of the last year:

• There was almost a 1% decrease in the total number of new litigated WC cases in Florida….BUT….

• The total number of Petitions for Benefits filed was up almost 6%.   That means considerably more litigation within each claim.

• The number of cases that closed was up 7.8%.

• Just under 36% of claims settled at state mediation, a very slight decrease (-.28%) .   Almost 70% of cases either settled or some of the issues were resolved at state mediation which is a 1.5% increase from last year.

So the picture that paints to me is that even though there is more litigation activity within each claim, we are still getting them closed fairly quickly, which has always been a major aim of our firm.  South Florida remains more litigious objectively than other parts of the state as each judge is assigned fewer new cases but there are more Petitions within each case.

Here is a link to the full report, but unless you have a spare ream of paper sitting around that you want to get rid of, do not hit print because its 269 pages.

https://www.jcc.state.fl.us/JCC/publications/reports/2024AnnualReport/OJCC_AnnualReport2023-24.pdf

Sincerely,

Morgan Indek | Managing Partner