Personal Injury Law

Workers Compensation for injured workers is under attack by FL Legislature

By Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.

If an employee is injured on the job do they rights for treatment and compensation of injuries?  As a Florida Personal Injury Law Firm  that helps injured workers with Workers Compensation issues, our answer is a resounding yes. There are Statutes that cover Workers Compensation issues for most states. In Florida, our Statute covering Labor law is Title XXXI, specifically Chapter 440 applies to Workers Compensation. This chapter outlines protocol for the injured worker and the employer. According to  440.185, F.S:

An employee who suffers an injury arising out of and in the course of employment shall advise his or her employer of the injury within 30 days after the date of or initial manifestation of the injury. Failure to so advise the employer shall bar a petition under this chapter unless:

(a)  The employer or the employer's agent had actual knowledge of the injury;(b)  The cause of the injury could not be identified without a medical opinion and the employee advised the employer within 30 days after obtaining a medical opinion indicating that the injury arose out of and in the course of employment;(c)  The employer did not put its employees on notice of the requirements of this section by posting notice pursuant to s. 440.055; or
(d)  Exceptional circumstances, outside the scope of paragraph (a) or (b). 

In this week's Palm Beach Post, Columnist and former member of the Editorial Board, Tom Blackburn, wrote the column "Injured workers are crooks (and other wisdom from the Legislature)".   I found this article enlightening, especially the following:

"Every few years Florida lawmakers reform the workers' compensation system again. Every time they do, they find something unreasonable to do with it. This year they topped themselves. The reform consisted of taking the word "reasonable" out of the law.Right. We can't be reasonable about insurance against job-related injuries."

I encourage you to read the entire article. Mr. Blackburn integrates humor into this very important topic. Workers Rights to be compensated for injuries at work are under attack by the legislature.

Legal Blogger, Matthew Noyes, Chimes in on this subject with his post "Are Florida Injured Workers Crooks?" .

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on June 12, 2009 (boomark / email).