Florida Injury Attorney Blawg

In previous blogs, we addressed the first and second elements of a Section 440.205 Florida Statutes wrongful retaliation/termination cause of action. This blog will address prong the third element. §440.205 reads as follows: Coercion of employees.—No employer shall discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate, or coerce any employee by reason of such employee’s valid claim for…

Florida’s workers’ compensation system was created, in 1935, with the goal of providing benefits to injured workers without the delay of havi ng to prove the accident was caused by the employer’s negligence. In exchange for this no-fault system, employers were granted immunity from being liable for negligence. The system, however, did not afford absolute…

Our previous blog addressed the first prong of a Florida Statute §440.205 workers’ compensation retaliation/wrongful termination cause of action (COA). §440.205 provides: Coercion of employees.—No employer shall discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate, or coerce any employee by reason of such employee’s valid claim for compensation or attempt to claim compensation under the Workers’ Compensation Law.…

Florida is an at-will employment state. The doctrine often allows employers to end employment relationships without suffering any negative consequences besides paying unemployment compensation benefits. While the doctrine creates a climate of vulnerability, Florida employers do not have absolute immunity for every termination decision. They can find themselves in hot water for This blog will…

I have blogged often to express my displeasure and dismay with the slow and sometimes immediate erosion of benefits available to injured workers under Florida’s workers’ compensation system. This blog highlights one example. The Florida Legislature enacted the state’s first “Workman’s” Compensation Act in 1935. While I have not done a case study of the…

Personal injury plaintiffs and defendants battle over past and future damages. One frequent battleground concerns the amount a plaintiff should be awarded for future medical expenses. Not infrequently, plaintiffs have sources such as health insurance, workers’ compensation, PIP, Med Pay, Medicaid, and Medicare to cover some or all of their future medical expenses. Almost always,…

Florida’s civil justice system allows accident victims to seek damages from those alleged to be at fault. Damages awardable fall into two broad categories: Economic and non-economic. Economic damages include medical expenses (past and future), past lost income, and the loss of earning capacity in the future. In some instances, Florida law allows these economic…

Floridians, like residents in every state, are acutely aware “of the terrible toll taken, both in personal injuries and property damage, by drivers who mix alcohol and gasoline,” Ontiveros v. Borak, 136 Ariz. 500, 667 P.2d 200, 205 (1983). While many of the culprits receive their intoxicating fuel from bars and restaurants, the legal standard…

The first sentence of §440.34(1) Florida Statutes advises that every attorney’s fee received by a Florida workers’ compensation claimant’s attorney must be approved by a judge of compensation claims (JCC). This is the case whether the fee is paid by the claimant, an employer, or a workers’ compensation insurance company. A violation of the law…

Collateral sources, such as health insurance, workers’ compensation, Med-Pay, Medicare, and Medicaid, which pay the medical expenses of an injured party arising from a third party’s negligence acquire a subrogation or reimbursement right in payments made to the injured party by the third party. (In Florida, Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance is the main exception…