Florida hurt by frivolous lawsuits

By Carlos Muhletaler

March 2, 2009

As the clock winds down to the start of Florida's legislative session on Tuesday, Floridians are looking to our legislators for economic relief. Given the dismal economic climate and its impact on the budget, lawmakers will have to roll up their sleeves and burn the midnight oil to do the work of government. The current crisis will command the full attention of our legislators in order to assure the economic survival of our state. There are a number of difficult choices that legislators will face. One choice that should be simple though, is to put an end to abusive lawsuits in Florida.

Florida's economy continues to be hurt by frivolous and meritless lawsuits. Even though some progress has been made to address lawsuits abuse in our courts, Floridians continue to pay a hidden tax or "lawsuit tax" on the products and services we purchase. Today, this additional burden costs every man, woman and child in Florida over $820 a year. That is an annual sum of over $3,200 for a family of four. One of the ways our legislators can help the families and small business owners in Florida is by enacting common sense laws that will protect all Floridians. Sadly, in October of 2008, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in Murray v. Mariner Health, eliminating the cap on attorneys' fees enacted by the 2003 reforms for workers' compensation cases. Unfortunately, greedy lawyers will be aggressively lobbying our lawmakers to re-write the workers' compensation laws in order to increase the cap on the fees they can collect and expand their ability to sue our employers. If greed overcomes logic, the result will further weaken Florida's struggling small business community who will be forced to pass the aggregated costs of workers' compensation insurance to you and me.

Our legislators must restore the attorney fee provision limiting how much plaintiffs' attorneys can collect in workers' compensation cases and that the attorneys' fees should be based solely on a percentage of actual benefits awarded to the injured worker.

Now is the time for our legislators to help restore confidence, fairness and balance to our out-of-control judicial system. Floridians need jobs — not higher attorney fees.

Carlos Muhletaler is executive director of Florida Stop Lawsuit Abuse.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-forum02sessionsbmar02,0,4243042.story