Cases

JCC’s order disapproved an agreement between the claimant’s attorney and the employer/carrier for the employer/carrier to pay a fee of $1,500 for the obtaining of medical benefits for the claimant authorized by §440.34(3)(a), F.S. There was no supporting evidence of record showing that the claimant’s attorney ever got the claimant medical benefits which entitled the claimant’s attorney to a fee under the terms of this statutory provision. The judge’s order disapproving the fee directed that the $1,500 be paid to the claimant. This part of the judge’s decision was reversed. There was nothing in the stipulation that if the JCC did not approve the stipulated attorney’s fee that the amount would be paid to the claimant. The JCC is not a court of general jurisdiction and cannot reform contracts. The JCC was without authority to redirect the attorney’s fees from counsel to claimant as an exercise of plenary equitable jurisdiction.

On remand, the court indicated that the parties could petition for the approval of attorney’s fees payable to the claimant’s attorney under §440.34(3)(b), F.S., not paragraph (3)(a), F.S. Court determined that an agreed upon amount of $500 in the parties’ agreement designated as "out of pocket costs" payable by the employer/claimant (not her attorney) was not subject to the JCC’s approval. This amount was a negotiated payment to be made to claimant herself, not an attorney’s fee subject to the JCC’s approval under Chapter 440.