Florida: JCC Must Be Careful in Making Findings Contrary to EMA’s Opinion

Where a Florida expert medical advisor (EMA) wavered slightly in answering a hypothetical question offered to the doctor on cross-examination, but clearly indicated in the EMA’s report that the injured worker had reached MMI, it was error for the Judge of Compensation Claims to disregard the EMA’s opinion on the basis that the EMA had been equivocal, held a state appellate court. The court acknowledged earlier precedent that held the presumption of correctness afforded to the EMA’s opinion did not apply if the opinion had been “equivocal,” but the court added that where, as here, there was no equivocation in the opinion itself, the JCC was required to make a finding that clear and convincing evidence existed to contradict the EMA. None existed in the instant case.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Olvera v. Hernandez Constr. of SW Fla. Inc., 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 17205 (Nov. 15, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 130.06.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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