Articles Posted in Workers' Compensation

A popular defense utilized by Florida employers and their workers’ compensation insurance carriers (E/C) to keep from having to pay workers’ compensation benefits is the drug defense under section 440.09(3), Florida Statutes. In pertinent part, the section provides as follows: (3) Compensation is not payable if the injury was occasioned primarily by … the influence…

Permanent Total Disability (PTD) — defined in section 440.15(1), Florida Statutes — is an indemnity (monetary) benefit sometimes available under Florida’s Workers’ Compensation System to the state’s most severely injured workers. Unless the worker has suffered an injury of the type as set forth in 440.15(1)(b), commonly referred to as a “catastrophic injury,” he or…

Under Florida law, if a workplace injury was occasioned primarily by the influence of alcohol or drugs, workers’ compensation benefits can be denied. Section 440.09(3), Florida Statutes (2018) (Interestingly, while this section provides that “Compensation is not payable,” with section 440.02(7) defining “Compensation” as “the money allowance payable to an employee or to his or…

Per section 440.15(4), Florida Statues, Temporary Partial Disability (TPD) benefits are due “if the medical conditions resulting from the accident create restrictions on the injured employee’s ability to return to work … or an employee returns to work with the restrictions resulting from the accident and is earning wages less than 80 percent of the…

It is not uncommon for injured workers to be terminated from their jobs post-accident. There was a time when Florida law required employers to make every effort within reason to reemploy their injured workers. While that admirable public policy was scrapped some 15 years ago, section 440.205, Florida Statutes does prohibit employers from terminating employees…

Our firm recently settled a hard fought workers’ compensation case arising from a 1995 industrial accident. We received the initial call from the Claimant in March of this year (2018). He explained that he had not received medical care for his injuries, tibia and fibula fractures, since three months post surgery in 1995, but had…

Employees testing positive for alcohol or drugs in their system at the time of injury face an uphill battle to recover workers’ compensation benefits. Under subsection 440.09(3), Florida Statutes (2018), compensation is not payable if the injury was occasioned primarily by the intoxication of the employee. If the employer has reason to suspect that the…

Florida statute section 440.13(5)(e) limits who may give medical opinions in workers’ compensation trials to “a medical advisor appointed by the judge of compensation claims or the department, an independent medical examiner, or an authorized treating provider.” Our office recently accepted a 23 year old workers’ compensation case where the employee has not received any…

In 1961, the Florida Supreme Court denied benefits to a workers’ compensation claimant who claimed to hurt her back on the job, for misrepresenting a past medical condition in a job application. See, Martin v. Carpenter, 132 So.2d 400 (Fla. 1961). For a number of years prior to completing her job application, the claimant had…

Every type of legal matter has a time bar to when legal proceedings can be maintained to address a dispute. The time bar is known as the statute of limitations. The Florida workers’ compensation statute of limitations is contained in section 440.19, Florida Statutes. Especially in the area of workers’ compensation, the courts have formulated…