Although the Florida Supreme Court rendered judgement on the Emma Murray v. Mariner Health and Ace USA case in 2008, and the 2009 Florida Legislature subsequently passed related legislation, the underlying battle of claimant attorney fees continues. Nicole Hessen of the West Palm Beach law firm of Rosenthal, Levy & Simon, P.A., who concentrates her practice on representing workers, provides a synopsis of recent events and commentary on what may (or should) happen next.
According to current Florida statutes, a claimant attorney's fee is driven by the claimant's date of accident.
If a claimant was injured prior to October 2003, then a claimant's firm would be entitled to a statutory fee on the settlement. In addition, if there was a recommendation from a physician authorized to treat the claimant, and the employer/carrier failed to timely authorize same, then the claimant's attorney would get an hourly fee on any issue he was successful at securing for the claimant that was not timely authorized or improperly denied by the employer/carrier. The employer/carrier was only responsible to pay hourly fees if a benefit was wrongfully denied or not timely authorized.
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