The Florida Supreme Court today gave state compensation claims judges greater latitude in awarding attorney's fees to claimants by striking down strict limits on potential awards.
In the case of in Murray v. Mariners Health/ACE USA, the court found that the use of strict guidelines as outlined in the state statue would have awarded the claimants attorney's a total of $684.84 for their work on the case, which averaged out to $8.11 an hour for roughly 80 hours of work.
The attorneys challenged the award, arguing that the going rate for lawyers in the area for cases of that nature would be roughly $200 per hour. In its decision, the Supreme Court sided with the attorneys and awarded a fee of $16,000, almost five times the amount received by the claimant.
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