Justices debate their workers' comp authority.

On paper, the Florida Supreme Court was supposed to have oral arguments September 2 on amendments proposed for the procedural rules for workers' compensation cases.

But the court never actually got to the suggested changes, spending the entire oral argument asking lawyers on both sides whether the court had constitutional and statutory authority to continue promulgating those rules.

Justices first peppered Jeffrey Jacobs, representing the Workers' Compensation Rules Committee, and Richard Sicking, representing the Bar's Workers' Compensation Section, on whether the court even had the right to consider the amendments.

"Workers' compensation judges are in the executive branch of government," Justice Charles Wells noted. "Are there any other instances in which this court adopts rules which govern the conduct of executive branch agencies?"

Added Chief Justice Barbara Pariente, "We call it quasi-judicial, but in fact it's an administrative proceeding outside the domain of the courts. It just is difficult to understand where we would have the jurisdiction now that DOAH [the Division of Administrative Hearings, which now includes the judges of compensation claims] has stepped in to make separate rules."

Jacobs and Sicking noted the court had ruled in 1973 (In re: Workmen's Compensation Rules of Procedure, 285 So. 2d 601 (Fla. 1973)) that it had the constitutional authority to promulgate the procedural rules, and the next year the legislature recognized that by enacting ES. [section] 440.29(3) which specifically gave the court that role.

Sicking argued that the entire workers' compensation system is a compromise where injured workers give up the right to seek damages from a judge and jury, for the guarantee they will be compensated and get medical treatment. That makes it still a judicial function, he said.

"Workers' compensation is supervised entirely by the judicial branch of the government and you have two choices. You have choice number one, which is to tell us how to run our procedures, which has nothing to do with substantive rights ... or leave us to wander around," Sicking said. "... The simplest way to do it is to do it the way it has been done for 30 years."

The opponents, Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims S. Scott Stephens, who prepared the DOAH-approved rules, and workers' comp practitioner Rayford Taylor...