This dissertation examines the relationship between claimants' legal representation and the magnitude of workers' compensation benefits in the State of Florida. Attorney involvement in workers' compensation has been cited as a primary cause of the rapidly increasing cost of states' workers' compensation systems. In Florida, recent legislation has been aimed at reducing litigation and attorney involvement in workers' compensation. Workers' compensation laws were originally designed to make workers' compensation "self-executing". The term self-executing implies that benefits should be paid to a worker who has been injured in the course of employment without the worker initiating legal proceedings. However, substantial attorney involvement and litigation in the workers' compensation system persist. Researchers and practitioners often blame attorney fees and other legal costs for increases in the cost of workers' compensation. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not the involvement of claimants' attorneys influences the magnitude of workers' compensation medical and disability benefits in the State of Florida. The study also examines the effect of claimants' legal representation on the claimants' impairment rating and time elapsing from injury to date of maximum medical improvement which both directly influence the workers' benefits. / Data from the State of Florida, consisting of 44,130 workers' compensation claims from 1985 to 1992, is segmented into forty-eight groups by injury type and body part injured as a control the severity of the injury. Two-stage least squares regression was run on five simultaneous equations to test the hypothesis that claimants' attorney involvement is associated with an increase in workers compensation impairment ratings, time elapsing from date of accident to date of maximum medical improvement, medical benefits, disability benefits and net total benefits. Simultaneous regression analysis was used because the variables representing the claimant's impairment rating and the time elapsing from the date of injury to the date of maximum medical improvement were input as control variables in the benefits equation as well as being endogenously determined by the system of equations. / For all injury type/body part groups there was a positive statistically significant (.10 level) relationship between claimants' legal representation and the claimants' impairment rating. The results suggest that for the date to maximum medical improvement and the benefits variables, the effect of claimants' attorney involvement depends on the injury type and body part injured. There is some support for the hypothesis that for injuries that are difficult to diagnose, the effect of legal representation will be greater. In general, the findings suggest that, with most injury type/body part combinations, claimants' attorneys do not significantly add to the cost of the system through benefits. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2755. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77499 |
| Contributors | Taylor, J. Christine., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 147 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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