Top Florida court strikes state statute that paid worker's comp lawyer $1.53 per hour
The Florida Supreme Court has struck, as unconstitutional a mandatory fee schedule set by a 2009 state law that limits the attorney’s fees that can be paid to lawyers in worker’s compensation cases.
In the case at bar, due to a sliding scale that sets attorney’s fees based on the amount of the worker’s comp award to the client, the law said the claimant’s lawyer should be paid $164.54 for over 100 hours of legal work. That amounted to $1.53 per hour, notes the majority in its Thursday written opinion (PDF).
The court also faulted the fee-capping law because it provides no procedure for challenging the amount of the attorney’s fees set by the statute.
“It is undeniable that without the right to an attorney with a reasonable fee, the workers’ compensation law can no longer ‘assure the quick and efficient delivery of disability and medical benefits to an injured worker,’ as is the stated legislative intent in section 440.015, Florida Statutes (2009), nor can it provide workers with ‘full medical care and wage loss payments for total or partial disability regardless of fault and without the delay and uncertainty of tort litigation,’ ” the majority wrote, citing the court’s 1991 decision in Martinez v. Scanlan, 582 So. 2d 1167, 1172.
It found that the mandatory fee schedule violates due process guarantees under both the federal and state constitutions.
Hat tip: Orlando Sentinel.
