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The Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of all injured Forida workers, including Florida First responders, and overturned the 2003 Florida workers’ compensation attorney’s fees provisions that reduced attonrney fees in Emma Murray v. Mariner Health, 33 Fla. L. Weekly S845.
The Florida legislature changed the attorney fee provisions of 440.34. Florida workers compensation attorneys, like Nancy Cavey, were paid attorneys fees by the workers compensation carrier if they successfully obtained workers’ compensation benefits. There are two ways the fees were calculated.
The first way allowed a workers compensation hearing attorney to be paid based on the hours they worked on medical or money benefits they got for the injured Florida worker. The other method was to pay the workers’ compensation attorney, a percentage, based on the value of the benefit secured. In other words, if a workers’ compensation lawyer like Nancy Cavey, obtained the payment of a nuclear stress test, which cost $3000, her fee would be 10% of 3000 or $300. If she spent 20 hours getting that benefit, Nancy Cavey would be paid $200 an hour or $4000.
In 2003, the Florida legislature limited attorneys fees to the value of benefit secured. Obviously, a worker’s compensation attorney would find it impossible to keep the doors open and pay bills if the fees were limited to the value of benefits secured. While many workers’ compensation attorneys left the practice, Tampa Bay workers’ compensation attorney, Nancy Cavey, continued to represent inured Florida workers with valid claims for medical or compensation benefits.
The Murray decision found that Florida workers’ compensation attorneys should be paid based on hours worked and not benefits secured. This is a great decision for the injured workers’ and First Responders of Florida!
Answering these broad-based questions isn’t easy. Help is a phone call away. You can contact Nancy Cavey, an experienced long-term disability attorney at 727-477-3263.
https://caveylaw.com/practice_areas/florida-first-responders-and-their-rights-to-workers-compensation-benefits.cfm
