Important Recent Case Law for Florida

Tuesday, December 24, 2013 | 0

NEW! Lopez v. All Star Investigations, 1D13-1108, (12/17/2013): A Florida appellate court is giving a worker a second chance to prove that his workplace fall last spring was compensable and not caused by a preexisting injury, as his employer alleged.  

NEW! Stahl v. Hialeah Hospital, 1D13-3929, (12/17/13): A judge of compensation claims lacked the statutory authority to order an independent medical examination from a second physician, according to a decision from Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal.

NEW! Savard v. Rio Vista Management, 1D12-5265, (12/10/2013): Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal withdrew its decision reversing a denial of a worker's claim for permanent total disability benefits.

NEW! Childers v. Clay County Board of County Commissioners, 1D13-1072, (12/10/2013): An employer who raised a timeliness defense in its initial response to the first of two petitions for benefits filed by an injured worker still had to raise the defense in responding to the second petition, and its failure to do so waived its ability to assert the defense as to the second petition, a Florida appellate court ruled. 

NEW! Cespedes v. Yellow Transportation, 1D12-0677, (11/26/2013): Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal denied rehearing of a dispute about whether the medical opinion testimony of a doctor who provided emergency care to an injured worker, without authorization from the worker's employer, is admissible.

NEW! Picon v. Gallagher Basset Services Inc., 13-12829, (11/19/2013): A federal appellate court revived an injured worker's negligence suit against her employer, finding that a triable question existed as to whether her employer's carrier had taken inconsistent positions as to the compensability of her injury.

City of North Bay Village v. Guevara, 1D13-0279, (11/07/13): A police officer for a small Miami suburb was not excused from Florida's two-year statute of limitations on filing a workers' compensation claim, even though the brochure that the city sent him to notify him of his work-injury rights did not explain that he enjoyed presumption of causation for his high blood pressure claim, the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled.

Brown v. Jerry Pybus Electric, 1D13-1237, (11/06/2013): A rule that allows a claim to be denied if the claimant voluntarily dismissed two previous petitions for benefits does not apply to claims that were resolved through mediation or stipulation, the Florida 1st District Court of Appeal ruled, overturning a judge of compensation claims' ruling.

Pasco County Sheriff's Office v. Shaffer, 1D12-5419, (10/23/2013): A corrections officer who was able to continue working and collecting her normal wages despite an injury that kept her from performing a major component of her job still qualified as "disabled," the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled.

Banuchi v. Department of Corrections, 1D12-3810, (10/16/2013): The Florida 1st District Court of Appeal clarified a trial judge's obligation to appoint an expert medical adviser and to defer to the adviser's opinion.