Where an injured employee was fired less than two weeks after sustaining an injury and before he had actually filed a workers’ compensation claim, he could nevertheless pursue a retaliatory discharge action, held a Florida appellate court. The court noted...
Injuries sustained by a Florida employee during an employer-sponsored bowling event arose out of and in the course of the employee’s employment since the event was not a “recreational activity” as defined in § 440.092(2), held a divided state...
A Florida appellate court held that a Judge of Compensation Claims erred in awarding workers’ compensation benefits to a claimant for an alleged toxic exposure claim in the form of fungal meningitis in as much as the statutes in question—§ 440...
Payment of cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) by the Division of Workers’ Compensation are the sort of “compensation” outlined in § 440.15(1)(f), held the Supreme Court of Florida. Accordingly, where an employer inexplicably stopped paying...
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...
Affirming a decision by a state Judge of Compensation Claims, a Florida appellate court has agreed that an undocumented worker who sustained injuries in a work-related accident can be denied benefits on the basis that he used someone else’s Social Security...
An independent medical examiner (IME) offered by the employer to opine on whether there was a sufficient causal connection between an employee’s lung condition and his employment need not be a board-certified pulmonologist, held a Florida appellate court...
In a deeply divided decision, a Florida court reversed an award of benefits to a home-based worker (working in Arizona) who tripped over her dog as she reached for a coffee cup during a brief break in her daily work activities. The court agreed that the course...
Where an insurance broker secured a policy of workers’ compensation insurance for a client an hour or so after one of the client’s employee had suffered a work-related accident, without disclosing to the carrier that the accident and injury had occurred...
A Florida appellate court affirmed an order by a Judge of Compensation Claims that denied a workers’ compensation claimant’s request for a $2,000 advance pursuant to § 440.20(12)(c), Fla. Stat., because she failed to establish a financial need...
By Robert J. Grace, Jr., Esq. & Lyle Platt, Esq. Since publication of our last edition of Dubreuil’s Florida Workers’ Compensation Handbook (LexisNexis), legislative activity was confined to a popularly supported bill regarding first responders...
The Judge of Compensation Claims appropriately disregarded the expert medical advisor’s (EMA’s) opinion that a claimant had a permanent impairment rating of at least 15 percent, as provided in the Class 2 classification of arrhythmias under the 1996...
Florida’s workers’ compensation fraud statute, § 440.105(4), Fla. Stat., does not require a physician to “interrogate” the claimant regarding what may have been false or misleading statements provided by the claimant to the physician...
Stressing that substantive rights under Florida workers’ compensation law are established by the date of the accident and that the 1988 law, which would apply in the instant case, did not contain any provision that could compel a claimant to undergo a functional...
A Florida trial court erred when it dismissed a former employee’s complaint against her former employer for failing to state a cause of action in her retaliatory discharge civil action [see § 440.205, Fla. Stat.], where she alleged that from the time...