A rate hearing on the filing was held by the Office of Insurance Regulation on Oct 9.

NCCI now has until Nov. 1 to file amended rates or it can appeal.

Last year NCCI proposed a rate reduction of 7.2 percent and Mr. McCarty said that was not enough and he dropped it an additional 6.3 percent for a total cut of 13.5 percent, which NCCI acceded to.

While he rejected NCCI methodology, Mr. McCarty did not accept what he heard at the hearing from the office of Stephen C. Burgess, insurance consumer advocate with the Florida Department of Financial Services.

The Consumer Advocate, he said, had testified that Florida employers had been overcharged by $1.7 billion during the past 10 years. This, wrote Mr. McCarty, is "not supported by credible evidence due to the use of incomplete and incorrect expected loss ratios and by failing to recognize that policyholder dividends are not a component of the expected loss ratio."

According to Mr. McCarty, annual financial statements filed by Florida insurers confirm that over $1.3 billion of policyholder dividends was paid to Florida policyholders during this 10-year period

"The Consumer Advocate's analysis does not recognize that with this filing workers' compensation rates will have been reduced by almost 40 percent since Oct. 1, 2003," he wrote.

Lori Lovgren, state relations executiveat NCCI, said no decision has been made about an appeal she said concerning the rates that while NCCI is optimistic about an increased drop in claims frequency and cost "the department is is slightly more optimistic."