Senate Committee Overhauls Workers’ Comp Attorneys’ Fees Bill
Apr 16, 2009
Senate Bill 2072, the companion to House Bill 903 relating to Attorney’s Fees for Workers’ Compensation Cases, was amended and passed (8Y-1N) on April 15, 2009 by the Senate Committee on Judiciary. The bill is scheduled to be heard on April 20 by the Senate Committee on General Government Appropriations, its last committee of reference.
Media coverage on yesterday’s SB 2072 committee vote from The News Service of Florida is reprinted below:
WORKERS COMP BILL OVERHAULED IN SENATE PANEL WITH TRIAL BAR AMENDMENT
By DAVID ROYSE
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, April 15, 2009…….A bill sought by big business to restore a court-stricken cap on lawyers fees in workers compensation cases turned 180 degrees Wednesday in a Senate committee with the approval of an amendment pushed by trial lawyers.
The measure (SB 2072) was intended to undo the Murray v. Mariner decision handed down last year by the Florida Supreme Court, which struck a limit on lawyers pay in certain workers comp cases.
But on Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment by Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Boca Raton, that has been pushed by the trial bar and, while restoring a cap on some lawyer fees, the bill now would allow injured workers to sign an agreement with their lawyer to exceed the cap.
As far as backers go, that essentially guts the bill. And the change may be short lived, with the measure now heading to the Senate General Government Appropriations Committee, which is likely to be much friendlier to the big business interests trying to restore the cap.
The amendment approved over the objection of bill sponsor Garrett Richter, R-Naples, also would prevent insurance companies from making up for fee awards that they pay when they wrongfully deny claims by simply rolling them into a rate filing.
In the rare cases where there is a penalty for bad faith denial of benefits, the amended bill would also let judges increase plaintiffs lawyers fees to the same amount paid to the carrier’s lawyers to defend the claim.
“It’s a good thing for working people, for police, for firefighters,” said Paul Anderson, a workers compensation attorney who has worked with the trial lawyer lobby against the original version of the bill.
The change in the measure surprised backers of the original bill, but Sen. Carey Baker’s general government budget committee gets it next and Anderson acknowledged that preventing the bill from being changed back would be difficult there.
The House has already passed a bill that restores the cap.
Businesses have made restoring a limit on lawyer fees in workers compensation cases a top agenda item this year, driven by fears of higher insurance rates. Those premiums have dropped considerably in recent years – since the cap was instituted – and backers of Richter’s original bill say the limit on lawyer pay was one reason for that.
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