The Florida Supreme Court has struck down, as unconstitutional on due process grounds, the mandatory fee schedule in Section 440.34, Florida Statutes (2009), finding that it eliminated the requirement of a reasonable attorneys' fee to a successful workers' compensation claimant.
The court reasoned that, considering that the right of a claimant to obtain a reasonable attorneys' fee has been a critical feature of the Workers' Compensation law, the mandatory fee schedule in Section 440.34, which created an irrebuttable presumption that precluded any consideration of whether the fee award was reasonable to compensate the attorney, was unconstitutional under both the Florida and U.S. Constitutions as a violation of due process.
|The case
Marvin Castellanos was injured during the course of his employment with the Next Door Co. Through the assistance of an attorney, Castellanos prevailed in his workers' compensation claim.
Because Section 440.34 limits a claimant's ability to recover attorneys' fees to a sliding scale based on the amount of workers' compensation benefits obtained, the fee awarded to Castellanos' attorney amounted to only $1.53 per hour for 107.2 hours of work determined by the Judge of Compensation Claims (JCC) to be “reasonable and necessary” in litigating Castellanos' case.
Castellanos had no ability to challenge the reasonableness of the $1.53 hourly rate, and both the JCC and a Florida trial court were precluded by Section 440.34 from assessing whether the fee award—calculated in strict compliance with the statutory fee schedule—was reasonable. The statute presumes that the ultimate fee always will be reasonable to compensate the attorney, without providing any mechanism for refuting that presumption.
The validity of that law reached the Florida Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court of Florida building in Tallahassee. (Photo: iStock)
|The Florida Supreme Court's decision
The Florida Supreme Court decided that Section 440.34, mandating a conclusive fee schedule for awarding attorneys' fees to a claimant in a workers' compensation case, was unconstitutional as a denial of due process under the Florida and U.S. Constitutions.
In its decision, the court explained that the right of a claimant to obtain reasonable attorneys' fees when successful in securing benefits had been considered a critical feature of the Workers' Compensation law since 1941. It noted that, from its outset, the workers' compensation law was designed to assure “the quick and efficient delivery of disability and medical benefits to an injured worker.”
Yet, the court added, “In reality, the Workers' Compensation system has become increasingly complex to the detriment of the claimant, who depends on the assistance of a competent attorney to navigate the thicket.”
The court conceded that the statutory fee schedule could, in some cases, result in a constitutionally adequate fee. It ruled, however, that it was facially unconstitutional as it precluded every injured worker from challenging the reasonableness of a fee award.
The court held the “irrebuttable statutory presumption” unconstitutional.
In the court's view, it was “undeniable that without the right to an attorney with a reasonable fee,” the workers' compensation law could no longer “assure the quick and efficient delivery of disability and medical benefits to an injured worker.”
Accordingly, it quashed the trial court's decision upholding the “patently unreasonable $1.53 hourly fee award,” and directed that the case be remanded to the JCC for entry of a “reasonable” attorney's fee.
The case is Castellanos v. Next Door Co., No. SC13-2082 (Fla. April 28, 2016).
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