Top Fla. Court Ups Lawyer Pay From $8 to $200/Hour in Worker's Comp Case
Overruling an appeals court decision that a 2003 Florida law limiting the amount of attorney fees in worker’s compensation cases is constitutional, the state supreme court said the appellate court was looking at the issue the wrong way.
Without reaching the constitutionality question, the top court read several statutory provisions in conjunction with each other to determine that an attorney’s fee must be reasonable. And, because the $8 an hour earlier awarded under just one statutory provision wasn’t, the supreme court instead awarded $200 per hour to the claimant’s attorney for 80 hours of legal work, amounting to a total legal fees bill of $16,000, it explains in a written opinion (PDF) in Murray v. Mariner Health and ACE USA that was issued last week.
The ruling is of concern to the insurance industry, which expects it to increase premium costs, reports Business Insurance. “Proponents say that hourly attorney fees are abused by lawyers who drag out cases to increase their pay, driving up systemwide costs. The cost of litigated claims was 40 percent higher in Florida than other states before the 2003 changes, according to the American Insurance Association.”
But the supreme court found that individuals effectively would be unable to pursue worker’s compensation claims if lawyers aren’t paid attorney fees that accord with what they can expect to earn in other litigation.
“Claimants would be unable to represent themselves against an employer/carrier because of the complexity of the law and the issues involved, and many would be unable to obtain counsel when an employer/carrier wrongly denied benefits if there was no prospect for the attorney to be reasonably compensated,” the opinion states. “Evidence showed that respondents in this case paid their attorney $16,050 (135 hours at $125 an hour) in the unsuccessful effort to resist paying benefits.”
