Disability Law

Proposed Legislation Would Expand Death Benefits for Firefighters

By David A. McCranie, Esq.

HB 259 and its identical Senate counterpart, SB 792, would expand the circumstances under which the survivors of Florida firefighters who are killed in the line of duty could collect certain death benefits.  Specifically, these bills would amend §112.191, Fla. Stat.,  to:

• permit the recovery of a $50,000 death benefit if the firefighter dies as the result of "the firefighter's participation in a training exercise";
• permit the recovery of a $150,000 death benefit when the firefighter is unlawfully and intentionally killed or "is injured and dies as a result of such injury";
• repeal the requirement that the firefighter be killed in the line of duty "as a result of an act of violence inflicted by another person while the firefighter is engaged in the performance of firefighter duties, as a result of a fire which has been determined to have been caused by an act of arson, or as a result of an assault against the firefighter under riot conditions" as a condition of his employer's responsibility for paying the group insurance premiums of the firefighter's survivors; and
• provide that the firefighter's death need only have been "work related" instead of occurring "as the result of the firefighter's response to what is reasonably believed to be an emergency involving the protection of life or property, or an unlawful act perpetrated by another" as a condition of his employer's responsibility for paying the group insurance premiums for the firefighter's survivors. 

Full post as published by Florida Workers’ Compensation Law Blog on February 07, 2009 (boomark / email).