JCC Lorenzen: No §57.105 Fees in WC Cases
One idea I heard bandied about after the enactment of the 2003 amendment to §440.34 was whether a successful claimant might avoid the fee limitations contained in the amendment by claiming entitlement to fees, in an appropriate case, under §57.105, Fla. Stat. That statute provides for the award of attorney's fees to the prevailing party "in any civil proceeding or action" in which the court concludes that "a claim or defense" either "[w]as not supported by the material facts necessary to establish the claim or defense" or "[w]ould not be supported by the application of then-existing law to those material facts." And, perhaps more importantly, it does not limit the amount of any such fees to a percentage of "benefits secured" by the attorney.
The statute does provide for the award of fees in administrative proceedings. See §57.105(5). And the First DCA has occasionally awarded appellate attorney's fees under this statute in workers' compensation appeals. See, e.g., Fumigation Dept. v. Pearson, 547 So.2d 352 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989).
But now, in Bell v. Weyerhaeuser, decided on 4/24/2008, JCC Lorenzen in Tampa has concluded that a judge of compensation claims lacks jurisdiction to award attorney's fees under this statute. Workers' compensation proceedings, she reasoned, are neither "civil proceedings" nor administrative proceedings under Ch. 120. Moreover, the Florida Workers' Compensation Law already contains a provision authorizing the award of attorney's fees for frivolous proceedings, to wit: §440.32, Fla. Stat.
