New York: Claimant’s Counsel Fees Reduced to $450 Where OC–400 Form Found to be Deficient

A New York appellate court affirmed a decision of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that reduced the attorney fees to a claimant’s counsel from $2,800 to $450, where the Board determined that the attorney had filed a deficient Form OC–400. Noting that the Board had broad discretion in approving an award of counsel fees and that an attorney was required to utilize the specified form, the appellate court agreed that the form was deficient since it failed to indicate the date each service was performed and the specific amount of time for each service. Instead, the attorney listed four categories of service with a total time for each category, identifying only the starting date for the initial work. The Board had not abused its discretion.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Matter of Fernandez v Royal Coach Lines, Inc., 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 410 (Jan. 19, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 133.03." target="_blank">133.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law