The Workers’ Compensation Settlement Process vs. Personal Injury in Florida: What You Need to Know

When we reach a settlement in workers’ comp, it is much different than people who have reached settlements in personal injury cases, such as car accidents or slip and falls—the law is totally different. And so, more people have been in car accidents or had personal injuries, and so they’re just not as familiar with how workers’ comp—how it operates—and so I wanted to explain a little bit about the differences. So, when you have a personal injury case, usually the attorney will take 33 and a third percent, up to 40% of a fee off of your settlement. And then, if they have medical expenses, such as if you had to have surgery or therapy or injections, then they have to pay the medical bills from your settlement. So, most of the time, if you get a settlement after you subtracted the fees and you subtracted the medical expenses, sometimes the settlement net amount is very low in personal injury cases. However, the way workers’ comp cases work is you don’t pay for any medical expenses because the medical expenses have already been paid by the workers’ comp insurance company. So, the only thing that comes out of a workers’ comp settlement is the attorney’s fees, and the attorney’s fees is much lower in workers’ comp than in a personal injury case; in a workers’ comp case, most attorneys charge a maximum of 25% of a settlement, and so instead of paying 33 and a third percent or 40% for a personal injury case, most people in workers’ comp pay 25%, so it’s much less, and there’s no out-of-pocket for the medical expenses.