Workers' Compensation Law

West Palm Beach Workers' Compensation Lawyer

The workers' compensation system in Florida has changed dramatically over the last twenty years, making it more difficult for an injured worker to obtain workers' comp insurance coverage. If you have been hurt at work, however, an attorney skilled in Florida workers' compensation law can help you to navigate the system, can help you to keep yourself financially afloat, and can help you work toward achieving your best outcome.

At Louis P. Pfeffer & Associates, P.A., we represent employees who are injured on the job in claims for lost wages and medical treatment expenses against private industry, Federal, state and local government employers and their workers’ compensation insurers. We handle issues involving defenses, fraud, subrogation, and appeals. Contact us for aggressive protection of your legal rights.

Since workers' compensation reform became effective on October 1, 2003, claims are not given the same merit as in the past. Claims brought in the state of Florida now must be approved by a judge of compensation claims. An injured individual bringing a worker's compensation claim today might be treated as a second-class citizen by his or her employer through threats or harassment.

While the reform can be said to protect employers from excessive or inadequate rates, it has turned the workers' compensation system into a free-for-all where insurance companies choose the doctor the injured individual is to see and injured individuals are forced to settle their cases. Where claims were once covered and a victim was once entitled to medical benefits, wage replacement benefits, and retraining, there is a now high standard of proof to be met and legitimate cases often are denied.

When severe carpal tunnel syndrome has rendered you unable to work for a year, the system does not account for the fact that the mortgage is due and bills must be paid. Claims for benefits after a brain injury, other head injury, repetitive exposure trauma, reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, or complex regional pain syndrome are expensive claims that insurance companies do not readily cover.

Whether you have been recently injured at work and are filing an initial claim for workers' compensation, or were previously denied access to the courts and jaded by Florida's workers' compensation system, contact a lawyer at Louis P. Pfeffer & Associates, P.A., for experienced, hands-on legal representation.