For the past several years, injured workers in the state of Florida have found it difficult to obtain competent legal representation in their worker’s compensation case because of the 2003 amendments to the Florida worker’s compensation statutes limiting carrier paid fees to claimant’s attorneys who successfully secured benefits on the claimant’s behalf. In Murray v. Mariner Health (PDF), a case challenging the statute, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the statue was ambiguous and that the fee compensating the attorney at $8.11 per hour for securing benefits was unreasonable. It didn’t take long for certain industry to attack the ruling. The following day Associated Industries of Florida, one of the largest insurance industries in the state of Florida, criticized the Court’s decision as a blow to Florida’s future economic prosperity. Read full article here. Even the Insurance Commissioner, Kevin McCarty, weighed in. He felt that the Florida Legislature will have to intervene to clarify its intent to limit attorneys’ fees in worker’s compensation cases.
