The Florida Supreme Court has issued an important ruling in Castellanos v. Next Door, significantly impacting Florida’s workers’ compensation statute. The high court struck down the fixed amount of attorney fees that successful workers’ compensation claimants are entitled to under Fla. Stat. § 440.34 on due process grounds, opening the possibility for successful workers’ compensation claimants to obtain increased attorney fees awards.
Prior to the Castellanos decision, Section 440.34(1) strictly limited successful claimants’ recovery of attorney fees based upon the amount of workers’ compensation benefits obtained. Specifically, a judge of compensation claims, or JCC, who is responsible for adjudicating disputes over workers’ compensation benefits—could only award attorney fees in an amount not exceeding 20 percent of the first $5,000 of the benefits secured, 15 percent of the next $5,000 of benefits, 10 percent of the remaining amount of the benefits secured to be provided during the first 10 years after the date the claim is filed and 5 percent of the benefits secured after 10 years. Furthermore, Section 440.34(1) created an irrebuttable presumption that precluded consideration of whether the statutory attorney fee award was reasonable.
