On October 23, 2008 the Florida Supreme Court rendered an opinion in the case of Emma Murray v. Mariner Health Inc.   In that case the Court ruled that attorneys representing injured workers were allowed to recover reasonable fees for helping workers to obtain statutory benefits where the insurance company or the employer refused to provide them voluntarily.

 

Before this ruling, the lower Courts were misinterpreting the law and capping attorney fees to a small percentage of the benefits obtained.  In some cases the hourly rate that an attorney representing an injured worker would be bound to take would be less than minimum wage.  Before the Emma Murray decision by the Supreme Court on October 23, 2008, many injured workers were left without the ability to retain an attorney to help them get benefits that the insurance company chose to deny.

 

The attorney fee limitations in Florida’s Workers Compensation Law only apply to attorneys representing injured workers and not to the insurance companies.  Insurance companies are free to spend whatever they wish to defend against claims brought by injured workers.

 

This ruling essentally requires that employers and insurance companies act with due care when deciding whether to deny a workers compensation claim as they will incurr the costs of both their own attorney fees and those of the injured worker if they wrongfully withhold benefits.