Each year, the Florida Office of Judges of Compensation Claims publishes two required reports. Most in the community are familiar with the "annual report" that is required by section 440.45(4). That is a broad examination of the adjudication system, processes, and progress. The second report is narrowly focused, required by section 440.20(11)(a), specifically regarding the settlements entered in "any case in which the employer or carrier has filed a written notice of denial within 120 days after the employer receives notice of the injury." This explicit requirement has been supplemented for many years now with mediation statistics in the annual "Settlement Report and Mediation Statistics Report." The 2021 edition is due in September, but is already on the website.
The report demonstrates the successful perseverance of the OJCC mediators through the last year of SARS-CoV-2. It covers the time period July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021. For much of that time, the OJCC mandated telephonic mediation in all instances. This was deference to the virus and the volume of requests for telephonic mediation that were arriving as allowed by Rule 60Q6.110. In order to simplify the process at the height of the pandemic, mandating the telephonic process relieved the state mediators of many requests.
The report documents that the 440.20(11)(a) settlements continue to be a very small population of the overall settlement volume. In 2021, there were only 54 of them, down from 70 the year before The volume has fluctuated over the years, but they have been consistently below 100 annually for thirteen years. Notably, however, though the volume decreased thus (-23%) in 2021, the aggregated dollar value increased by about $140,000 (+30%). One might validly be curious about that. The 70 instances in 2020 were settled for an average of $6,527.88 ($456,952/70). In 2021, the 54 were settled for an average of $11,040.02 ($596,161/54).
There was some speculation in the late days of 2020 (May or June) that such "denied" settlements might increase in the time of COVID-19. There was some suggestion that workers' compensation claims for SARS-CoV-2 infection might be denied in significant volumes and that some portion of those would then result in settlement under section 440.20(11)(a). The categories for such denials include: "causal connection lacking," "no accident occurred," "no injury occurred," "not timely reported," and "not in course and scope." Any of these might have been pled in response to an occupational disease claim. It remains possible that such a settlement might come in future years, but the data for 2021 does not support that this occurred in significant volumes.
The report documents that the volume of petitions fell in 2020, to just under 70,000 (-3.34%). That marks two consecutive years of petition volume decrease following notable growth in the years following the court decisions on attorney fees in 2016. In light of the persistent decrease in injury frequency, that is perhaps not surprising. However, various hurricane seasons and the pandemic are likely to have influenced those figures.
Despite the decreased petition volume, the mediations increased almost 7% to 19,442 in 2021. That followed a similar increase in 2020. More petitions have been mediated by Florida OJCC mediators in recent years. 2021 demonstrated the highest volume since 2009-10 (19,864). Despite some of the mediators resorting to telecommuting and the mandate for telephonic mediation that persisted through February 2021, the volume of mediations demonstrates the success of the Office.
The corresponding figures show that the volume of cases "reset to private" mediation decreased by over 1,000 in 2021. That figure was a ten-year low of 4,410.
The most impressive statistics, however, are the outcomes. Despite a higher volume of mediations, the number of mediations resulting in settlement increased (+8.3%), as did "all issues resolved" (+19.5%), and "all issues resolved except fees" (+26.9%). Corresponding to these increases, fewer cases resulted in an "impasse" in 2021 (-2.5%). The only substantive outcome with a decrease was "some issues resolved" (-13.6%). As a result of both the increased volume of mediations and the decreased impasse, the overall percentage of impasse to mediations held was a ten-year low of 23.16%.
The most impressive statistics, however, regarded timeliness. The overall average of days from the petition to the first mediation was less than 100 days. The number of mediations (first) conducted within 130 days (section 440.25, Fla. Stat.) was 98.3%. And, 100% of OJCC mediators averaged less than 130 days in 2021, for the 13th straight year!
In all, the report documents successful and dedicated service to the Florida workers' compensation community. Despite the pandemic, weather, and other challenges, the OJCC mediators were effective and productive in 2021.
