Homestead workplace accident lawyer

Which Florida laws apply to a Homestead workplace injury claim

The rules are the same across Florida, so they are written out in full on one page rather than repeated here. They are explained on the statewide workplace injury page, with the statute text linked.

This firm does not handle workers’ compensation claims. What it handles is the third-party claim — the case against everyone who caused the injury and is not your employer — which runs alongside a compensation claim rather than instead of it.

Against the employer, compensation is normally the only route. Section 440.11 makes it the exclusive remedy, with a narrow exception where the employer’s conduct was an intentional tort, which has to be proved by clear and convincing evidence.

But a great deal of agricultural labor in South Dade is not "employment" under chapter 440 at all. Section 440.02(20)(c)2 excludes agricultural labor for a farmer who employs 5 or fewer regular employees and fewer than 12 others at one time for seasonal labor completed in under 30 days, provided that seasonal work does not exceed 45 days in a calendar year. Where the exclusion applies there is no compensation coverage — and no exclusivity either, which is a very different case.

Migrant and seasonal agricultural workers also have a federal route. The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act covers things like transportation and housing safety and allows a suit in federal district court without exhausting administrative remedies (29 U.S.C. § 1854). Actual damages are limited where state compensation applies, which is one more reason the two questions are answered together.

What follows is the part that is specific to Miami-Dade County — where these claims arise, where you will be treated, which courthouse the case goes to, and how the records are obtained.

A lot of farm work here is not covered at all

Most people assume workers’ compensation always applies, and in South Dade that assumption is wrong often enough to matter. Section 440.02(20)(c)2 excludes agricultural labor performed for a farmer who employs five or fewer regular employees and fewer than twelve others at one time for seasonal agricultural labor completed in under thirty days, where that seasonal work does not exceed forty-five days in a calendar year.

Where the exclusion applies, two things follow at once. There is no compensation coverage, which is the bad half and the one people discover first. And there is no exclusivity under § 440.11 either, which is the half nobody mentions — because exclusivity is the price of coverage, and without the coverage the bar does not apply in the same way.

Which means the question "am I covered" and the question "can I sue" have the same answer and it is not always the one people expect. Establishing the size and structure of the operation is therefore the first piece of work, and it is a factual question about payroll and headcount rather than a legal argument.

Who else is responsible, and why that is the case this office takes

A compensation claim pays medical care and a portion of lost wages and nothing for the harm itself. No pain and suffering, no loss of the capacity to enjoy life. The third-party claim is where those exist, and it is a different case against a different defendant.

In a nursery or a packing operation the third parties are usually the equipment and the chemicals. A manufacturer, a company that serviced a machine, a supplier, an applicator. A guard that was removed raises a question about who removed it and when, and that is answered from maintenance records.

On a build in the Redland it is usually another contractor. A separate company on the same site is a third party, subject to how compensation was secured on that job — which is a question about the contract chain rather than about the accident.

And on the road it is a driver. A crash involving a crew van is a motor vehicle claim first, with the injury claim running against the at-fault driver and a compensation question alongside it.

What a compensation carrier takes from a third-party recovery

Where compensation has been paid, the carrier is subrogated to your claim against the third party up to what it has paid and will pay, and it can file a notice that becomes a lien on any judgment or settlement (§ 440.39).

That lien is not simply the whole amount. It is reduced by its share of costs and attorney’s fees, and where the worker shows they did not recover the full value of their damages, the carrier’s recovery is reduced to the same proportion the net recovery bears to the full damages. The worker carries the burden of proving it.

There is also a deadline running on the carrier’s side. If the worker has not sued within one year of the cause of action accruing, the employer or carrier may sue after thirty days’ notice — and if they have not sued within two years, the right reverts to the worker. Those dates are worth knowing before somebody else files your case.

The parts that are only possible early

Report the injury and get care. Whatever system applies, an untreated injury is an undocumented one, and the record from the first visit is what the claim is built on.

Write down the equipment. Make, model, any serial or asset number, and photographs of it as it was, including any guard or cover that was or was not in place. Machines get repaired, replaced and re-guarded quickly after an injury.

Write down who else was on the site. Other companies, other crews, who was supervising and whose equipment it was. Those names are the third-party claim.

And establish the size of the operation. How many people work there regularly, how many were working that day and whether the work was seasonal. That is what decides which system you are in.

Where the Homestead office is, and how to get there

DAPENALAW is at 100 NE 15th Street, Suite 210, Homestead, FL 33030, open Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:00. The direct number is (786) 900-0184.

The office is on NE 15th Street in downtown Homestead, a short drive from the Florida Turnpike and US-1. It is the closest office for Florida City, the Redland, Leisure City and Naranja, and it is the nearest one to the South Dade Justice Center where many of these cases are heard.

You do not have to come in. The first conversation can be by phone or video, documents are handled electronically, and where an injury makes travel difficult the meeting happens where you are. The Homestead office is the closest one for Homestead, Florida City, Leisure City, Naranja, Princeton, Goulds, the Redland, Silver Palm and the area around Homestead Air Reserve Base. The Sunset Drive office in South Miami is usually the shorter drive from Kendall, Cutler Bay and the rest of the county.

More about the Homestead office · All three offices