Miller & Miller, P.L. Opens the Door to Old Worker’s Comp Files

West Coast, FL – Have you ever wanted copies of old archived pleadings, filings or settlement documents involving a particular Claimant, even before claims were filed in your case? Until very recently, the Florida Department of Financial Services (FDFS) would honor only a public records request and produce a copy of those documents so painstakingly blacked out (redacted) that they were virtually useless as a tool for discovery. All of that just changed.

As a direct result of the intervention of one of our member law firms and in what a Division attorney has termed a “sweeping” change in policy, the Florida DFS-Legal Division has agreed to produce unredacted versions of old archived settlement documents, pleadings and Division filings and to do so before the filing of formal claims. After reviewing the now-abandoned policy, FDFS has agreed to align their practices with DOAH in compliance with F.S. 440.30 and drop their heretofore routinely posed jurisdictional objections (which acted as an express refusal to honor pre-claim subpoenas). This means that all of the Division-filed medical and financial details of those old claims and settlements are now available for discovery review in a way (and at a time) that they have never been before.

The great advantage of the archived settlement documents (for example) is that, unlike the newer versions of these publicly filed documents, the archived settlements of pre-10/1/03 cases contain then-required details including specific accident descriptions, claimed injuries and implicated body parts, history of treatment, doctors and hospital names, MMI from every perspective and total amounts and breakdowns of settlements. Similarly, unredacted adjuster filings offer re-creations of the old claims as they developed, along with details that would otherwise be lost to history. These archived documents can become both an invaluable window to the past medical, claims and settlement history of a particular Claimant and a fertile ground for further discovery.

If any of our members would like to discuss this development, limitations that may apply to this change in FDFS policy, how to go about obtaining records prior to the filing of claims or how the change in policy came about in greater detail, Mr. Miller invites you to contact him at his newly expanded offices at Miller & Miller, P.L., 9040 Town Center Parkway, Bradenton, FL 34202, by phone at 941-487-3662, or by email to trent@trentmiller.com. Our website is www.trentmiller.com.