Check out the article on H. George Kagan in this month’s DRI: The Voice of the Defense Bar regarding the recent Lane v. Workforce Bus. Services, Inc. case.
Miller Kagan Rodriguez & Silver’s partner residing in the firm’s West Palm Beach, Florida, office and former DRI Workers’ Compensation Committee Chair H. George Kagan has successfully repelled yet another assault on fundamental workers’ compensation “exclusive liability” provisions of Florida’s chapter 440, contained in section 440.11, Fla. Stat. (2011).
Florida’s First District Court of Appeal issued an opinion in Lane v. Workforce Bus. Services, Inc. and American Zurich Insurance Company, 39 Fla. L. Weekly D2378 (Fla. 1st DCA Nov. 12, 2014) which rejected a “test case” prosecuted by members of the Florida claimants’ bar designed to, in essence, get around attorneys’ fee limitations of section 440.34 by “importing” punitive fee sanctions from civil litigation found in section 57.105 into the workers’ compensation setting.
MKRS Law was enlisted to defend at the appellate stage. The court granted oral argument during which it asked, in effect, having previously found another provision (regarding paralegal fees) of section 57 applicable to workers’ compensation, why not the companion measure, section 57.105, regarding essentially punitive attorneys’ fees for frivolous claims and defenses?
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