Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim in Florida:

Report the injury immediately or as soon as possible to a supervisor or some other person in charge.  Reporting the injury to a co-worker is not sufficient under Florida case law.

If the employer refuses to provide a claim form, send the employer a letter by certified mail return receipt or hand deliver the letter to the employer and write down a note of the date, time, and the name of the person to whom you delivered the letter.  The letter should indicate the date of your injury, and the parts of the body injured.

Get the names and telephone numbers of any witnesses if possible.  Many times, witnesses will be co-workers and may not be willing to cooperate for fear of losing their job.

Get medical treatment as soon as possible after the injury occurs.  If your employer refuses to provide treatment, go to an emergency room as soon as possible.  Be sure to tell the doctor that your injury occurred at work.  It is important that you give a correct and complete injury of the injury.  Also, it is important to tell the first doctor(s) you treat with all of your symptoms.  It is difficult to add other body parts to a claim if there are no complaints of pain close in time to the injury in many cases.

Florida Waiting Period
There is a 5 month waiting period to receive Social Security Disability benefits, after the effective date of disability. This is often too long a waiting period for severely ill persons.

Florida Workers’ Compensation Treatment
If you have suffered an injury at work, it is essential that your treating physician is not controlled or influenced by your employer (or the workers' compensation insurance company) when making decisions regarding your care. Injured workers do not ordinarily have the right to select their own physicians.

Florida Workers’ Compensation Benefits
Workers' compensation entitles an employee to all reasonable and necessary medical care related to the injury. The benefits available to workers include permanent or temporary total disability, permanent or temporary partial disability, and medical and related expenses. Benefits include visits to an approved health care provider, surgery, hospital care, dental or orthodontic treatment, prescription drugs, and medical supplies ordered by an approved physician. An employer cannot be made to pay for emotional distress, such as pain and suffering.

An injured employee also may be entitled to payment for lost wages. An employee also is entitled to lost wages benefits if he or she is able to work, but has suffered a permanent loss of a bodily function as a result of the injury. Benefit amounts are determined by set state guidelines and can be as high as two-thirds of a worker's salary at the time of the injury.

Injured employees unable to return to work may be entitled to rehabilitation and training provided by the Division of Workers' Compensation, Bureau of Rehabilitation and Medical Services. The employer or insurance carrier also may provide these services voluntarily. In addition, the Bureau of Rehabilitation and Medical Services offers reemployment services to injured workers, such as help in finding a job, writing resumes, vocational testing, and counseling. As an incentive for employers to hire workers unable to return to regular work, the state's Preferred Worker Program reimburses employers the cost of a disabled employee's workers' compensation insurance premium for up to three years.

If an employee dies as result of a work-related injury, the employee's dependents--spouse, children, or dependent parents--are entitled to death benefits of up to $100,000, with certain limitations.

Florida Workers’ Compensation Contact Information:
Tanner Holloman, Director
Division of Workers' Compensation
200 East Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-4220
(850) 413-1601 (850) 413-1601 or 1-800-342-1741 1-800-342-1741
(Contact: Duncan Hoehn)

NOTICE: These questions and answers concern Florida law only, and should not be construed nor relied upon as reflecting the law in other States, nor as giving legal advice. You are warned that circumstances often vary greatly and that, due to changing decisions and law, the answers to these questions may change over time and not be current, and you should consult an attorney in any specific case, and NOT rely on these questions and answers as giving anything other than general information.