An Appeal has been filed with the First District Court of Appeals challenging the Constitutionality of the draconian fee provisions passed by the State legislators corrupted by the Insurance Companies. The Special Interests who dictate to the politicians seem hellbent on destroying the Constitutional rights of the weakest members of society. The Special Interests are terrified of workers having a level playing field against employers and insurance companies.

Under the current law, insurance companies can spend an unlimited amount of money defending every claim, unfettered by statutory limitations. Unfortunately, the same Employers & Insurance companies wrote the law that their lapdogs in the Legislature passed verbatim. The law severely limits injured workers’ rights, including limiting workers’ Access to courts and violating the Separation of Powers by putting caps on what Judges can award in fees to workers’ lawyers.

Although the District Court of Appeals deferred on our Motion to certify our appeal to the Supreme Court, we are hopeful it will be sent up once the panel reviews the Motion. It only takes one panel of Judges to have the requisite character and courage to stand up for their own powers to strike down bad laws passed by a corrupt legislature.

There has been a steady erosion of workers’ rights under the Special Interest rule. However, during a recent Oral Argument in the Castellanos case, it appeared that Judge Padavano had enough vision to see the hypocrisy of allowing Insurance Companies to wage a war of attrition against injured workers. Florida is hopeful that the panel in Castellanos has enough guts to certify the question to the Supreme Court of Florida and not rollover in the face of the Legislature’s over reach.

If the Court has the courage to certify in Castellanos, Floridians’ confidence may get restored. Ever since the resignation of the 1st DCA’s Chief Judge while under investigation of a complaint of bias, the 1st DCA’s image has suffered. Striking a blow for fairness in the Workers Compensation Court system would go a long way to restoring the reputation of all Courts.

A woman who was severely injured while working for a well known food service and uniform company was refused benefits by the Workers Compensation carrier. Despite winning Social Security Disability for the woman as a result of the severe injury, the Employer and Insurance company refused to pay Temporary Total disability for several months, even though the Doctor they authorized took the woman totally out of work. At the trial, the employer finally agreed to pay the remaining benefits owed under the law while boosting her weekly pay by over $ 100.00 per week. Penalties and interest were also assessed against the Employer/Ins. for the delay and late payment. Glad to see some justice served.

Longtime worker for local AC company had blown out his shoulder. After settling the Workers Compensation aspect for close to $200,000.00 dollars, we were able to go back and get him approved for Social Security Disability after several denials. The hearings were in Orlando for both cases. Happy to see financial security and medical benefits for a great guy dealt a tough hand by a Workers Compensation injury.

Last week we were successful in obtaining Social Security Disability for a client with an ongoing Workers Compensation case. The woman and mother had a relatively minor injury, but the surgery left her with nerve damage and Relex Sympathetic Dystrophy, a terrible nerve disorder that can progress to all parts of the nervous system.

Very happy to at least give her the safety net of Social Security as a backup to her Workers Compensation benefits. RSD is a very complex attack on the body’s nervous system and can be crippling. If you are sufferring from RSD after trauma, or suspect you are more injured than the doctors are letting on, please contact our office for a free consultation.

After the Jacobsen case referred to the potential criminal liability of insurance lawyers for violating 440.105 3 c and 440.105 4 e, the Special Interests in Tallahassee who control the Legislative process are moving to protect Insurance lawyers and the Judges from Criminal liability.

The Florida Workers Compensation Law, Chapter 440, was written by the Insurance Industry. The Insurance & Employer Lobbyists than donated heavily to their elected lapdogs in the Legislature who passed the law almost verbatim. While Florida was distracted by the 2003 Special Session called by JEB Bush over Terry Schiavo, JEB and his cohorts slipped the terrible new Workers Compensation Law past Floridians. The Courts are now forced to admit that the law is unconstitutional, but every time a portion is struck down by the Courts, Corruption reigns supreme and the language is tweaked to keep the Special Interests happy.

Floridians cannot sleep through another attack on their Constitutional rights. Since the JEB Bush attacks were passed in 2003, the overall claims filed for injured workers has dropped from over 150,000 to 61,000. The 60% decline is directly related to the erosion of the injured Workers Rights and the unconstitutional limitations unilaterally applied against workers and their lawyers. Not surprisingly, the Legislature passed HB 941 last year, allowing EXCESS profits for workers compensation insurance companies.