Fort Lauderdale Workers Compensation Lawyer
You were hurt doing your job, and now the checks are late, the doctor is chosen for you, and somebody is hinting you could come back early. We can take it from here. Call 954-522-5800 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Broward County since 1993.
Workers Compensation claims in Fort Lauderdale
The carrier picks the doctor, decides what is covered, and can stop your checks while you wait. Meanwhile the rent is due, the light duty you were promised does not exist, and nobody has mentioned that somebody other than your employer may also owe you. Sorting out both claims is what we do, from the first call.
Port Everglades, the yacht and marine trades along the New River, and the airport are three of the largest employers of injured workers in this county, and maritime employment is not covered by Florida workers' compensation. A worker injured on a vessel in navigation is covered by the Jones Act; a worker injured on a dock, a pier or a marine terminal usually falls under the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act. Both pay differently and are pursued in a different forum than a Chapter 440 claim, and a maritime worker filed into state comp by default can lose real money before anyone notices.
A Broward compensation claim pays authorized medical care and a portion of lost wages regardless of who was at fault, and the first question is always which system applies. Maritime work at the port and on the water falls outside Florida’s statute entirely. Report the injury to your employer promptly and in writing, because a late report is the most common reason a claim is denied.
What to do after a workers compensation in Fort Lauderdale
- Report it to your employer, in writing, and keep the message. Florida gives an injured worker a short window to report a workplace injury, counted from the day of the accident rather than from the day it turned serious. Tell a supervisor, then send a text or an email the same day so the date is fixed. A late report is the most common reason a carrier denies a claim, and a message sent that afternoon closes the argument before it starts.
- Say the words “this happened at work” at every medical visit. Not once, and not only to the first person who asks. The chart is what connects the injury to the job, and a record that describes a shoulder problem without saying how it started is the single most useful document a carrier can be handed. If you go to an emergency room before anything is authorized, say it there too.
- Go to the authorized doctor, even if you would rather not. The employer and its insurer choose the treating physician, which is a real constraint rather than a suggestion, and missing appointments with that doctor damages a claim quickly. You do have one change of physician during the claim. It is worth understanding how that works before using it, because it can only be spent once.
- Keep your own record alongside theirs. Dates of appointments, what you were told, what work restrictions were written, mileage to and from treatment, and every letter that arrives. Claims are decided months later on paperwork, and the worker who kept a simple diary is in a far better position than the one relying on memory and on a file held by the other side.
- Ask before you accept anything called a settlement. A lump sum in a comp claim usually closes future medical care as well as wage benefits, permanently. That can be the right decision and it is frequently made without anybody explaining what is being given up, or what happens to the money if Medicare has an interest in it. There is no cost to having the numbers looked at first.
Where these happen in Fort Lauderdale
Broward’s largest employers of injured workers are the airport, the hospitality corridor, the warehouse belt and the health care systems, and each produces a recognizable claim with a recognizable weak point.
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Airport ground and cargo operations
Ramp, baggage and freight work, which is heavy, repetitive and done to a schedule that does not bend.
- Lifting and repetitive injuries to shoulders, backs and knees, built up over months rather than caused on a date
- Being struck by equipment and vehicles on a ramp, where several employers work the same aircraft
- A third party who is not your employer, since ground handling, catering and fueling are frequently separate companies
- Shift and staffing records, which document the pace a claim is being disputed on
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Hotels, restaurants and housekeeping
The beach corridor employs a large housekeeping and kitchen workforce, and the injuries are cumulative rather than dramatic.
- Shoulder and back injuries from bed turning, cleaning and carrying, which develop over weeks
- Burns, cuts and falls on wet kitchen floors, which are reported late because people keep working
- Staffing agency employment, where the employer of record is not the hotel giving the instructions
- Language, since a report and a recorded statement taken in a second language are worth reviewing
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Warehouse, distribution and delivery
The industrial belt along Powerline and Copans, and the last-mile delivery work feeding out of it.
- Lifting injuries and repetitive strain measured against a pick rate
- Forklift and pallet injuries, where the equipment may belong to another company
- Road collisions while driving for work, which produce a claim against the other driver as well
- Productivity and route data, which is recorded continuously and we can get
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Health care and residential care
The largest employer group in this county, and the one whose injuries are most consistently underreported.
- Back and shoulder injuries from lifting and repositioning patients
- Needlesticks and infectious exposure, which have their own reporting requirements
- Assaults by patients and visitors, which are compensable and are routinely written off as part of the job
- Incident reporting systems that are thorough once obtained, which helps a claim rather than hurting it
What causes them
- Falls from height, and falls on the same level at work, which together account for more claims than anything else
- Lifting, pulling and repeated bending, which is where most back and shoulder claims begin
- Repetitive motion over months, including carpal tunnel and rotator cuff injuries that have no single accident behind them
- Being struck by equipment, vehicles or falling material on a work site
- Machinery injuries, including caught-in and crushing injuries to hands and arms
The injuries we see, and what each one turns on
Backs and necks, and the phrase that decides them
The most common serious comp injury and the most commonly denied. Florida requires the workplace accident to be the major contributing cause of the injury and of the need for treatment, and because nearly every adult spine shows wear on imaging, that is where the fight happens. What answers it is the difference in function before and after, documented by a treating physician, and a treatment record with no unexplained gaps.
Shoulders and knees
Rotator cuff and meniscus injuries, which usually need imaging that a carrier is slow to authorize and then surgery it is slower still to approve. The delay itself becomes an issue, because a worker who has waited eight months for an operation has a longer recovery and a weaker outcome than one who had it at eight weeks.
Injuries that developed rather than happened
Carpal tunnel, tendonitis and hearing loss have no accident date, which is exactly what makes them difficult. They are compensable, and the reporting clock generally runs from when the worker knew or should have known the condition was work-related rather than from the first symptom. Getting that date right at the outset matters more than almost anything else in these claims.
What Florida law requires you to prove
Major contributing cause, which is the phrase the system turns on
Florida does not simply ask whether work contributed to an injury. Under Fla. Stat. § 440.09 the workplace accident has to be the major contributing cause of the injury and of the need for treatment, judged against all other causes combined. It is the provision behind most denials, and it is why a carrier goes looking for a prior injury, an old scan or a weekend activity before it decides anything.
What the benefits are, and what they are not
Compensation pays authorized medical care and a portion of lost wages regardless of who was at fault, and in exchange it is generally the exclusive remedy against your own employer under Fla. Stat. § 440.11. Wage benefits under Fla. Stat. § 440.15 are a fraction of the average weekly wage rather than the whole, temporary benefits are capped in duration, and impairment benefits after maximum medical improvement are set by a rating rather than by what the injury cost you. Nothing in the system pays for pain, and nothing pays the difference between two thirds of a wage and the rent.
The doctor, the deadlines, and what happens when a claim is denied
The employer and carrier authorize the treating physician under Fla. Stat. § 440.13, which also gives an injured worker one change of physician during the claim, requested in writing, with the carrier then selecting the replacement. The injury has to be reported to the employer promptly under Fla. Stat. § 440.185. A denial is not the end: a petition for benefits goes to a judge of compensation claims, mediation comes first, and the process is designed to be used rather than admired.
The full statutory detail, and the parts that differ by claim type, sit on our statewide workers compensation page rather than being restated in every market.
How we prove it in Broward County
These claims are decided months later on paperwork, most of it held by the employer and the carrier. The list below is what actually moves a denial.
- The written report of the injury and the date it was made, which is why a text or an email the same day matters
- The complete medical record, including the first visit, since that is where the injury is connected to the work
- A treating physician who addresses causation directly, in the statutory language rather than in general terms
- Prior medical records, which usually help by showing what you could do before
- Work restrictions in writing, and what the employer did or did not offer in response to them
- Shift, staffing, route and productivity records, which document the conditions being disputed
- The employer of record, particularly where a staffing agency is involved
- Whether any company other than your employer was involved, which opens a separate claim
Where the work was maritime, the system question comes before all of it. A crew member on a vessel and a worker on a dock are covered by two different federal schemes rather than by Florida’s statute, and the difference decides what the claim is worth.
Who would handle your case
Being hurt in Fort Lauderdale is hard enough without working out the legal side on your own. The trial lawyers below have handled workers compensation claims across Florida since 1993, and one of them will take yours from the first call to the last check. They will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.
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Richard P. Pravato Founding & Managing Attorney Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar since 2004, and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Injury cases exclusively since 1996. Full profile → -
Brett J. Yonon Senior Trial Attorney Selected to Florida Super Lawyers in 2024 and 2025. Brett Yonon is who this firm puts on a catastrophic injury or a death in the family, and he has tried those cases to verdict. Full profile →
How insurance companies handle these claims
A compensation carrier is not deciding whether to pay. It is deciding how much and for how long, and almost every step below is aimed at one of those two questions rather than at whether you were hurt.
- Denied, because the accident was not the major contributing cause
- The standard denial, and it usually arrives after somebody has found a prior injury or a degenerative finding on a scan. Almost every adult has those findings, and their presence proves very little on its own. What answers it is a treating physician who addresses causation directly, in those words, and a clear account of what you could do before and cannot do now.
- The authorized doctor puts you at maximum medical improvement
- That date changes everything: temporary wage benefits stop, an impairment rating gets assigned, and the claim moves from treatment to numbers. It arrives sooner than most workers expect and sometimes sooner than the treatment justifies. It is challengeable, and the one change of physician is worth saving for exactly this moment rather than spending early out of frustration.
- A nurse case manager comes to your appointments
- They are paid by the carrier and they are frequently helpful with scheduling and authorizations. What they are not is neutral, and what happens in the examination room gets reported. You are generally entitled to speak with the physician privately about your own medical care, and asking for that is not rude.
What a claim can include
Authorized medical care
Treatment, surgery, therapy, prescriptions and mileage to and from appointments, with the physician chosen by the employer and its carrier. The mileage is small and is claimed by almost nobody.
Wage benefits while you cannot work
A fraction of the average weekly wage rather than the whole, paid while a physician has you off work or on restrictions the employer cannot accommodate. The duration of temporary benefits is capped by statute.
Impairment benefits after maximum medical improvement
Paid according to a rating assigned by the physician once treatment has plateaued. The rating drives the number, which is why the date of maximum medical improvement and the rating itself are both worth examining rather than accepting.
Why Wolf & Pravato in Fort Lauderdale
This office has been in Fort Lauderdale since 1993, and compensation claims here are heard by a judge of compensation claims rather than in the Broward County Courthouse, with mediation before any hearing. Where a third party is also responsible, that case is filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit and runs alongside, which is a combination worth having handled together rather than by two firms.
Richard Pravato has been Board Certified in Civil Trial law by The Florida Bar since 2004. The Bar lists 861 lawyers in the state holding it against a membership over 109,000. What it means in practice is that the other side knows the file can go in front of a jury, and files that can go to trial are priced differently from files that cannot.
The first conversation is free. We are paid out of the recovery or not at all, and if we do not think there is a claim worth bringing we will tell you that rather than take it.
Fort Lauderdale workers compensation questions
I was hurt working on a boat. Is that a workers’ comp claim?
Probably not a Florida one. A crew member injured on a vessel in navigation has a Jones Act claim, which unlike compensation allows recovery for pain and suffering. A worker injured on a dock or a marine terminal generally comes under the federal Longshore Act. Both are separate systems from Chapter 440, and which one applies depends on the work you were doing and where you were standing when it happened.
The carrier denied my claim. Is that the end of it?
No, and denials are common enough that the system has a process built for them. A petition for benefits goes to a judge of compensation claims, with mediation first, and most disputes resolve at that stage. What matters is what the medical record says about causation, so the useful response to a denial is usually medical rather than legal in the first instance.
My injury built up over months. Is there still a claim?
Yes. Repetitive and cumulative injuries are compensable, and the reporting clock generally runs from when you knew or should have known the condition was related to your work rather than from the first twinge. Establishing that date correctly at the outset matters more than almost anything else, because a carrier will otherwise pick the earliest symptom in your record and call the report late.
Can I sue my employer for a workplace injury in Florida?
Usually not. Workers compensation is the exclusive remedy against an employer, which is the trade-off for benefits paid without proving fault. Narrow exceptions exist. The more productive question is usually whether someone other than your employer contributed to the injury, because that claim is not barred.
My claim was denied. What now?
A denial is not the end. You file a Petition for Benefits with the Office of the Judges of Compensation Claims, and there is a two-year deadline from the date of injury to do it. Denials are frequently reversed, and the reasons given are often procedural rather than substantive.
The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.
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Tell us what happened
A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. We are at 2101 W Commercial Blvd, Suite 1500, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.