Buying workers' comp insurance can now benefit the Foundation.

Florida lawyers may now purchase workers' comp insurance through the Bar's Member Benefits Program and lend a hand to The Florida Bar Foundation at the same time.

The state mandates that all businesses with more than three employees provide an insurance policy to pay for medical treatment and salary benefits of injured workers. Unlike other types of coverage where you get to choose the ultimate cost via limits, covered events and deductibles, workers' compensation insurance benefits and rates are set by the Legislature and the Division of Workers' Compensation Department of Financial Services. Therefore, you will pay exactly the same base price for this coverage no matter what carrier you choose.

However, being a member of The Florida Bar, you have an opportunity to purchase your workers' compensation insurance from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida's workers' compensation affiliate OptaComp, said Terry Hill, the director of the Bar's Programs Division. By grouping The Florida Bar members into one single group, each firm is eligible to participate in a dividend program based on the group's overall performance and combined loss ratios.

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Former Florida Bar Foundation President William L. Thompson worked as chair of The Florida Bar's Member Benefits Committee to ensure that the Foundation could be assigned the dividend and, without giving tax advice, that it should be treated as a charitable contribution in accordance with the U.S. tax code, subject to the individual lawyer's tax situation.

"The group policy gives even the smallest of firms the opportunity to earn a dividend," Thompson, a solo practitioner from Orange Park, said. "That dividend might only amount to a couple hundred dollars, but the firm would not have been able to earn any dividend if obtaining workers' compensation insurance individually."

More important, Thompson said, when combined with the contributed dividends earned by other firms throughout the state, the group policy could reap contributions of tens of...