Business Insurance (12/23/15) Stephanie Goldberg

The Florida Supreme Court has declined to accept jurisdiction of the State of Florida v. Florida Workers’ Advocates et al. case that questions whether workers’ compensation is an adequate exclusive remedy for injured workers. A three-judge panel in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal unanimously reversed Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jorge Cueto’s August 2014 ruling that declared the state’s workers’ compensation system unconstitutional because changes made to it mean it no longer provides “an adequate exclusive replacement remedy” in place of common-law torts.

The Supreme Court stated that the intervening plaintiffs in the case, which included Florida Workers’ Advocates, the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group, and Elsa Padgett, an injured Miami-Dade County worker, lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of the Florida statute that establishes workers’ compensation as an exclusive remedy.