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

Noted Workers' Compensation attorneys Kim Syfrett and Richard Chait return to FJA Radio for a no-holds barred discussion in this second part of our Workers’ Compensation program to share their reaction to the Florida business community’s reform proposal to a system the state Supreme Court ruled last year as “fundamentally unconstitutional.”

In what they describe as a “shock to the conscience”, Kim and Richard reveal that the Associated Industries of Florida proposal would eliminate a more than 70 year-old carrier-paid obligation for attorney fees when benefits are wrongly denied.  Fourteen years of eroding workers’ benefits during past reforms and “incredulous profits by insurance companies” shares Richard,  has now created a situation where the only way to prevent total fracture of the system and fall into a tort system under the AIF proposal, would be to institute a bad faith remedy.

“Essentially what the (business) industry is saying with this proposal is ‘We’re going to keep our right to choose your doctor, we’re going to keep our right to decide whether you get the medical treatment that doctor recommends, and when we decide that we don’t want to give it to you, we’re going to make you pay to show that we were wrong.  And there’s not going to be any consequence for our wrongful denial.’” - Attorney Kim Syfrett