Episode 3 Part One – Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Crossroad

The Florida Legislature is facing a monumental challenge when it convenes in March: How to address a workers’ compensation insurance system which the Florida Supreme Court has determined to be “fundamentally unconstitutional” with respect to certain rights and remedies.

Richard Chait and Kim Syfrett, both leaders with the Florida Justice Association and Florida Workers' Advocates, share their insight in this program on the Court’s rulings and the challenges faced by their clients who routinely face delay or denial of the provision of medical treatment and related benefits in what they view to be a “fractured system” in Florida.

Chait details the Florida Justice Association’s four pillars geared toward positively reforming the system in this upcoming legislative session:
1. The need for transparency and competition in the ratemaking process
2. Some element of choice in the provision of medical treatment by the injured worker
3. Revitalization of the post-maximum medical improvement benefit for those who suffer career-altering injuries
4. Codify the Supreme Court’s decision in Castellanos to ensure access to court through reasonable attorney’s fees when benefits are wrongfully denied

You’ll also hear about the ever-growing “cocoon of collateral interests” which has spun so tightly around the core principles of workers’ comp through the extensive reforms over the years that we can no longer appreciate its underlying intent – to make sure the injured employee is taken care of.

Program Note: Personal injury law will be one of the major topics at the upcoming Florida Justice Association’s 2017 Workhorse Seminar in Orlando from Wednesday February 28th through Friday, March 3rd. Registration is available at www.FloridaJusticeAssociation.org