Disability Law

Differing Views on Possible Veto of WC Attorney's Fee Bill

By David A. McCranie, Esq.

In this letter reprinted in the May 18 edition of the Palm Beach Post, Bill Herrle, the Florida executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business, urges Governor Crist to sign CS/HB 903.  Mr. Herrle rejects as "unfounded" any fears that the bill will make it more difficult for injured workers to obtain representation in workers' compensation cases.  And police and firefighters' unions which have urged a veto are just being "selfish" because a veto will "hamstring" small businesses with "unnecessarily high [insurance] rates."

But echoing the views expressed by Howard Troxler in his May 10 column, the editorial board of the St. Pete Times has called on Governor Crist to veto the bill in this May 18 editorial.  The editors note that if an attorney can earn only $8 an hour, as in Murray, he simply will not take case - even when the employer/carrier clearly owes the benefits in question.

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