ANASTACIO DELGADO, APPELLANT,
v.
A. GARCIA HARVESTING, INC. AND FCCI INSURANCE GROUP, APPELLEES
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The court held that the judge of compensation claims erred in ordering monthly job interviews for vocational rehabilitation as no statutory provision authorizes such an order.
An employee, previously deemed permanently and totally disabled, was ordered by the judge of compensation claims to submit to monthly job interviews f…
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PER CURIAM.
In this workers’ compensation appeal, Delgado, the former employee of appellee, A. Garcia Harvesting, Inc., appeals an order directing him to submit to monthly job interviews for the purpose of aiding him in his vocational rehabilitation. Delgado, who had previously been accepted by the employer and carrier, FCCI (respectively, the E/C), as permanently and totally disabled, argues that there is no provision in chapter 440, Florida Statutes, authorizing the judge of compensation claims (JCC) to order him to conduct such interviews, and we agree.
Because the procedure for conducting vocational assessments after an employee is accepted as entitled to compensation is governed by section 440.15(l)(e), Florida Statutes (2002), our standard of review is de novo. See e.g., Depart v. Macri, 902 So. 2d 271 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005). That statute explicitly provides that the employer’s right to conduct vocational evaluations must be carried out pursuant to section 440.491, which specifies how a carrier may obtain a re-employment assessment for a claimant who has suffered catastrophic or serious injury, and then re-employment services if the rehabilitation provider recommends such services. Once those conditions have been satisfied, the employee may be subjected to no more than annual interviews. Because there is no showing in the case at bar that there was ever a re-employment assessment or recommendation of re-employment services,1 the JGC erred as a matter of law by directing Delgado to attend .monthly job interviews.
REVERSED.
ERVIN, BARFIELD and VAN NORTWICK, JJ„ concur. . Although, there is no transcription of the hearing on the E/C’s motion to compel Delgado's attendance at job interviews, the E/C acknowledges that the JCC did not consider any evidence at the hearing below, but only heard legal argument, and that the findings of the JCC were based on issues of law and not of facts.
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Punsky v. Clay Cnty. Bd. OF Cnty. Comm'rs & Scibal Assocs., 60 So. 3d 1088 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011)…viewed for abuse of discretion. See Morris v. Dollar Tree Store, 869 So. 2d 704, 707 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004). However, to the extent that an award of costs is based on statutory construction, review is de novo. See Delgado v. A. Garcia Harvesting, Inc., 913 So. 2d 78, 79 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005). The legislature’s significant amendment in 2003 to the established law of seventy years, which previously immunized unsuccessful claimants from the payment of an employer’s or carrier’s costs in non-frivolous cases, leads u…
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Jennings v. Habana Health Care Ctr. & Gallagher Bassett, 183 So. 3d 1131 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015)…ue of statutory interpretation, however, the standard of review on the statutory interpretation question is de novo. See Punsky v. Clay Cty. Bd. of Cty. Comm’rs, 60 So. 3d 1088, 1092 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011) (citing Delgado v. A. Garcia Harvesting, Inc., 913 So. 2d 78, 79 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005)); see also Palm Beach Cty. Sch. Dist. v. Ferrer, 990 So. 2d 13, 14 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008) (deciding whether judge of compensation claims erred in awarding costs was question of statutory construction, subject to review de novo).…
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