An interesting
case caught the news in Pennsylvania in March. I do not read every news story about workers' compensation, but the headline, "plant
worker knocked out by falling refrigerator" caught my eye. The
lead line in the first paragraph led me to read the story through, it said
"Joseph Tolle awakened to see a refrigerator still plugged into the wall,
swinging above his head." That has to be disconcerting, a heavy object
dangling above you from a plug-in.
The story
describes the events, which essentially involve a 26 year old security officer
hit by a falling fridge, that had been placed on a shelf about eight feet above
the floor. It might be best overall if refrigerators remained on the floor? His case went to trial in Pennsylvania in February 2015. The
accident occurred around 3:30 a.m. on October 13, 2013.
Some interesting
points are raised by the story.
The attorney
interviewed for the article said that "it can take up to a year for cases
to come to completion once a claim is filed." in 2013, the Florida OJCC
averaged 142 days (about 4.5 months) from petition or motion until final
hearing. Certainly, there were Florida cases that took over a year. With Expert
Medical Advisers, bankruptcies and other complications it can happen. Sixteen months seems a bit long however.
The article noted
that in Pennsylvania in 2013 there were 46,630 petitions and remands assigned and "46,032
judges decisions in workers' compensation claims filed in Pennsylvania."
In 2013, Florida had 58,041 petitions filed, according to page 11 of
the 2013-14
annual report. We do not count remands, so that figure is not a direct
corollary to the Pennsylvania number.
The figure of
46,032 "judges decisions" is interesting. Last year, our judges
averaged 57 trial orders each, and we have 31 judges, so we had about 1,767
trial decisions. The judges entered an average of 393 stipulation orders each,
or 12,183 stipulation decisions. They entered about 2,510 "other"
orders each, for a total of 77,810 "other" orders. I am not sure how
Pennsylvania defines "judges decisions," but it would appear
Florida's judges perhaps entered about 91,760 orders by comparison. This may or
may not be an "apples to apples" comparison.
According to a
study by the National
Association of Workers' Compensation Judiciary, Florida has 31 judges, so
that figure (91,760) yields a per-judge "orders entered" average of 2,960 per judge. The study
says that Pennsylvania has 90 workers' compensation judges, so the figure
reported (46,032) yields about 511 per judge. Again, whether this is
"apples to apples" is not clear.
The article also
noted that claim volume is decreasing in Pennsylvania. I recently looked at the
figures we have for claim/petition filing in fiscal 2015 (which ends June 30,
2015). Based on the ten months that are behind us for 2015 (through April 30), it looks like the
petition and new case filings will be plus or minus one percent of the 2014
figures. Right now the statistics are showing a trend to increase in both
categories, but less than three-tenths of one percent.
An interesting case from PA. I hope the gentleman who woke up looking at a refrigerator dangling over him recovers. If your refrigerator is on a high shelf, you might want to take it down. I hope people are not waiting 16 months for decisions in Florida. I find the comparison of what is going on in these two states' workers' compensation adjudication processes interesting. I hope you do also.
An interesting case from PA. I hope the gentleman who woke up looking at a refrigerator dangling over him recovers. If your refrigerator is on a high shelf, you might want to take it down. I hope people are not waiting 16 months for decisions in Florida. I find the comparison of what is going on in these two states' workers' compensation adjudication processes interesting. I hope you do also.
