Big News For Workers Compensation Insurance

For the past several months, insurance companies have been fighting to increase their rates for workers compensation insurance – again.  The information surrounding this decision has been a bit convoluted, so we will try to break it down to be as simple as possible.

What it comes down to is the decision that will be made by the newly appointed commissioner of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation – David Altmaier.  Following two landmark cases that protected the rights of injured workers, the National Council on Compensation Insurance is trying to scare the State of Florida into passing a rate hike of nearly 20% on to employers.

The workers’ compensation insurance industry has already pulled in staggering profits of $1.8 billion over the past decade, and if David Altmaier sides with the insurance industry they stand to pull in an additional $700 million in insurance premiums per year.  As if the insurance company doesn’t make enough money already, this burden will be shouldered by small businesses and will only serve to stifle job creation in the state of Florida.

More information on this case and the upcoming decision, you can visit the following link to the news article:

Click Here

The workers’ compensation insurance claim process is already a difficult enough journey to navigate, and these new premiums will only make that process even more convoluted.  It is imperative that you seek the counsel of a qualified, board-certified Orlando Workers Compensation attorney.  With over 20 years of experience in this industry, the Law Offices of Charles H. Leo are here to help and provide you with a no obligation consultation about your particular workplace injury issue.  Call us today to schedule an appointment!

The First District Court of Appeals upheld our hard fought victory against Gary Yeomans & Cory Fairbanks Mazda. Cory Fairbanks Mazda & Gary Yeomans had tried to avoid responsibility for paying their long-term worker her lost wages she had won after a Workers Compensation Trial victory. Not only did our client win the appeal, but the District Court of Appeals even commented on the lack of misconduct evidence presented by Gary Yeomans & Cory Fairbanks Mazda.

The Court wrote an 8 page opinion confirming every aspect of the Trial Court’s findings, which means at long last Gary Yeomans & Cory Fairbanks Mazda must pay the woman the money they owe her. A great day for justice, as the woman won against all odds and the enormous and multi-faceted obstacles Gary Yeomans & Cory Fairbanks Mazda placed in front of her quest for justice and fair treatment.

Proud of our court system for allowing one of the “other 90%” to defeat the money and resources of Gary Yeomans & Cory Fairbanks Mazda.

 

Link to Trial Order

After 2 separate trials against the Arena Football League, the Trial Court ruled in our client’s favor!! Huge win that took several hundred hours of work and involved numerous doctor depositions, lying factual witnesses, and 2 depositions of the Director of player personnel for the Arena Football League in Chicago.

The trial win awarded the player 2 years of past due lost wages, more than $ 25,000.00 worth of past medical treatment the player had to get on his own, and continuing treatment for his serious injuries. The League first tried to avoid responsibility by claiming the claimant had not passed a physical, which was rejected by the Court in the first trial. In the second trial the Arena Football League a tried to avoid responsibility  by claiming their own standard football contract language was invalid.

Several coaches testified, as well as part owners of the team, the team doctor, the team trainer, and the football player himself. The claimant won the first trial , when the Court found the claimant had been injured(despite the team originally denying the videotape of the practice where the injury occurred). The Arena Football League argued their contract’s plain language was ambiguous, and that the contract wasn’t finalized until filed and signed in Illinois, which the Court rejected.

The complex case took 2 days worth of live testimony in addition to the depositions, so claimant thrilled with the big trial victory. Happy for the claimant after the Arena Football League had refused to settle, despite spending tens of thousands of dollars in Legal defense fees and costs.

The Arena Football League has appealed, but it is a clear C.S.E. case, with a solid order by the trial judge.  The amount of money spent by the League in trying to avoid responsibility is staggering, always great to see Justice prevail on these hard-fought battles. The 2 years of litigation will be extended by the League’s refusal to accept the judgment.

The Florida Supreme Court issues opinions on Thursday mornings at 11 am, and the world of Workers Compensation lawyers are glued to their screens every Thursday. There were none today, it feels like getting coal in your stocking Christmas morning.

I have forwarded some legal quotes from Lou Pfeffer, who also has a case at the Supreme Court, which I used below.

“Justice delayed is justice denied” is a legal maxim meaning that if legal redress is available for a party that has suffered some injury, but is not forthcoming in a timely fashion, it is effectively the same as having no redress at all….The phrase has become a rallying cry for legal reformers who view courts as acting too slowly in resolving legal issues either because the existing system is too complex or overburdened, OR because the issue or party in question lacks political favor.

No one has as little political power as injured workers in the State of Florida. The employers own the legislature, who pass whatever law the insurance industry & employers tell them to pass. Injured workers have no money, so they have no influence over the Legislature.

Injured workers are waiting for the final opinions of the Supreme Court in Westphal(argued in July 2014), and Richardson(briefed January 2015, the next case after the Castellanos Oral argument in November 2014).  There is rampant speculation that the Supreme Court is waiting for the Legislature to finish their Special Session on Redistricting(because the Court found the Legislature guilty of corrupting the Fair Districts Amendment) so workers rights aren’t added to it.

There may be a method to the Florida Supreme Court’s delay. If the Supreme Court stands up for the Constitutional rights of injured workers too soon, the Legislature may immediately make the Law even worse like they did during the Terry Schiavo Special Session in 2003. The Legislature has zero respect for the rule of law, nor the Constitutional rights of the middle class.

Delayed Justice has been a theme of the poor and disenfranchised going back to the Magna Carta of 1215, clause 40 of which reads, “To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice”

Martin Luther King, Jr., used the phrase in the form “justice too long delayed is justice denied” in his letter from Birmingham jail smuggled out of jail in 1963, ascribing it to a “distinguished jurist of yesteryear ”

As Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, Warren Burger noted in an address to the American Bar Association in 1970: “A sense of confidence in the courts is essential to maintain the fabric of ordered liberty for a free people and three things could destroy that confidence and do incalculable damage to society: that people come to believe that inefficiency and delay will drain even a just judgment of its value; that people who have long been exploited in the smaller transactions of daily life come to believe that courts cannot vindicate their legal rights from fraud and over-reaching; that people come to believe the law- in the larger sense-cannot fulfill its primary function to protect them and their families in their homes, at their work, and on the public streets.”

As Florida’s middle class gets decimated by the heavy- handed greed and corruption coming from the Legislature and the Executive branch that has attacked the independence of the judiciary, we can only hope and pray that the Florida Supreme Court is up to the challenge of wielding their power to protect the injured workers of Florida expeditiously.

Maybe next Thursday,,,,, Florida’s middle class waits on egg shells for justice to prevail, while belts tighten.

The First DCA ignored the pleas of the Trial Court & claimant, refusing to address the constitutional challenge that the JCC was unable to address because he was not an Article V Judge.

The First DCA panel of Benton, Clark, & Makar , per curiam affirmed the law, rather than  answer the constitutional question requested by the claimant. Case number 14-4588 was a challenge to the constitutionality of allowing employers to have absolute control over the selection of claimant doctors.

By refusing to write an opinion, the First DCA allowed the employer to pick whatever biased or incompetent doctors they want to treat claimants. In the case at Bar, the employer insisted on offering a doctor who was being sued for malpractice after paralyzing an injured worker during neck surgery. The claimant refused to treat with the offered doctor, and appealed the law that forced incompetent & biased doctors on the injured worker. It feels un-American to allow such a totalitarian system of doctor offers, yet the First DCA refused to let the case be certified through to the Supreme Court.

PCAs on workers compensation constitutional challenges damage the reputation of all courts, because it leaves the appearance of obstructionism in the public’s eyes.

A Writ of Mandamus was filed in the Florida Supreme Court to try to force the district court of appeal to write an opinion so that the claimant’s challenge could proceed to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court ruled that they were unable to force a written opinion out of the First District Court of Appeal.

Unfortunately, all Florida workers compensation appeals must go through the First District (1 0f 5) because of an arbitrary provision in Chapter 440, 440.271, which allows them to be a goalkeeper of constitutional challenges. In the specific case, they were the equivalent of a 1000 lb hockey goalie, blocking the claimant’s plea for a constitutional opinion.

Separation of Powers between the 3 branches of government require a courageous court willing to strike down bad laws passed by a special interest dominated legislature and a power crazed executive branch. When the Courts give too much deference to either, Florida loses out when the courts rubber stamp whatever corruption the Legislature decides to pass.