Last week, the Judge of Compensation Claims awarded workers' compensation benefits after Attorney Matthew Noyes presented the case at the Final Hearing. Despite the workers' compensation carrier's position that the recommended epidural steroid injections were not medically necessary or related to the workers' compensation accident, the Judge disagreed and accepted the testimony of the injured employee's doctor and ordered the carrier to authorize the epidural steroid injections.
In addition, the workers compensation carrier refused to amend the injured employee's average weekly wage to include income from her second job. Under Florida workers' compensation law, the average weekly wage shall include wages from any other job the injured employee was working at the time of the injury as long as those wages are reported to the IRS for income tax purposes. Initially, the wages from the second job were not included in the injured workers' income taxes because she did not receive the paperwork before filing her income taxes. However, she subsequently filed an amended income tax return to include these wages. Nevertheless, the workers' compensation carrier still failed to amend the average weekly wage. After legal argument from Attorney Matthew Noyes, the Judge of Compensation Claims ordered the workers' compensation carrier to amend the average weekly wage to include the wages from the second job.
Florida workers' compensation law can be a mine field if you don't have someone guiding you through the hoops and hurdles of the work comp laws. Attorney Matthew Noyes and his Clearwater personal injury law firm -- Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes -- have been helping clients after Florida worker compensation claims for many years. Click here for a free case consultation after your Florida workers' compensation claim.
