Disability Law

Another Bill to Limit Attorney's Fees Filed in House

By David A. McCranie, Esq.

In another attempt to reverse the supreme court's ruling in Murray v. Mariner Health, Representative Anitere Flores (R-Miami) has filed HB 903 in the Florida House of Representatives.  This bill would:

• Leave intact the circumstances under which an employer/carrier would be responsible for paying the fees of a successful claimant's attorney under §440.34(3)(a)-(d) and (7).
• Repeal any requirement that such fees be "reasonable" and require instead that the fees must be "less than or equal to" the various percentages of "benefits secured" as the result of the attorney's efforts.

The bill contains legislative findings of fact, including a finding that Murray represents a "judicial nullification" of the legislature's reforms enacted in 2003 and that the bill is intended to "clarify beyond dispute that the reforms on awards of attorney's fees are an essential element of a functioning and self-executing workers' compensation system."

Full post as published by Florida Workers’ Compensation Law Blog on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).