A Florida appellate court affirmed a decision by a state judge of compensation claims that barred a long-haul truck driver from receiving workers’ compensation benefits for an alleged work-related injury based on findings that the driver had given false and...
Reversing itself, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal held that a public utility’s obligation to maintain its equipment and facilities was the sort of activity that could be subcontracted to another firm and that when it had properly done so,...
Under Florida’s one-time change of physician statute, § 440.13(2)(f), Fla. Stat., a judge of compensation claims was required to appoint an EMA to resolve a conflict in the medical evidence where an injured worker was dissatisfied with the medical opinion...
Florida’s special presumption of compensability [see § 112.18, Fla. Stat.], which favors first responders and other law enforcement employees who pass pre-employment physical examinations and then subsequently suffer from cardiac conditions, could not...
Where a workers’ compensation carrier supplied the injured worker with a referral physician and appointment options with the five-day period required by § 440.12(2)(f), Fla. Stat., that carrier did not lose its right to designate an alternative physician...
Finding that a Florida circuit court had jurisdiction, pursuant to § 440,23(1), Fla. Stat., to award sanctions to an injured worker who contended the employer’s carrier who failed to provide orthopedic care following the entry of an order by a JCC requiring...
An insurer’s cancellation of coverage related to a workers’ compensation insurance policy was effective in spite of the fact that, prior to the injury in dispute, the carrier’s agent had sent the general contractor a certification that insurance...
The 52-week filing requirement related to first responder PTSD claims in § 112.1815(5)(d), Fla. Stat., runs from the date of the qualifying event specified in the statute and not from the date the first responder manifests PTSD symptoms, held a Florida appellate...
While the provision of electricity to its Florida customers required that a Florida utility company maintain its equipment, a company with whom the utility contracted for maintenance work did not do so on the basis of any subletting of the utility's "contract...
A JCC's decision finding that a workers' compensation claimant had not knowingly misrepresented her post-injury earnings was affirmed by a state appellate court in spite of considerable evidence that contrary. The claimant sustained a work-related back...
A JCC's decision to deny claimant's request for temporary disability benefits on the basis that the claimant had received full pay during the period from the claimant's bank of accumulated sick time was error, held a Florida appellate court. The JCC...
Construing Florida's one-time change of physician statute, § 440.13(2)(f), a state appellate court held, in a divided decision, that it is insufficient for an employer or carrier to provide the worker with the name of a new physician within the five-day...
A Florida appellate court held a municipality had successfully rebutted the presumption of compensability [see § 112.18(1)(a), Fla. Stat.] regarding a correction officer's claim of cardiac disease (atrial fibrillation), where the evidence suggested that...
The 30-day “grace” period found in § 440.34(3)(b), Fla. Stat., which allows an employer/carrier to avoid the imposition of attorney fees if the the employer/carrier either accepts the claim or provides the requested benefits within 30 days of its...
Distinguishing several earlier Florida decisions, in which an employer had been barred from asserting immunity from tort liability on exclusive remedy grounds after it had denied the employee’s workers’ compensation claim on grounds that the injury...