Report Title:

Workers' Compensation; Fees

 

Description:

Provides a number of factors that the director of labor and industrial relations may consider in approving attorneys' fees, including comparable civil litigation attorneys' fees.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1353

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 386-94, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§386-94 Attorneys, physicians, other health care providers, and other fees. (a) Claims for services shall not be valid unless approved by the director or, if an appeal is had, by the appellate board or court deciding the appeal. Any claim so approved shall be a lien upon the compensation in the manner and to the extent fixed by the director, the appellate board, or the court. The following factors may be considered in approving attorney's fees:

(1) Those factors described in the department's administrative rules pertaining to worker's compensation attorneys' fees;

(2) The comparable hourly rates charged by attorneys who are engaged in other areas of civil litigation in Hawaii; and

(3) The hourly rates which have been approved by state and federal courts in Hawaii as a reasonable hourly civil litigation rate for attorneys.

(b) Any person who receives any fee, other consideration, or gratuity on account of services so rendered, without approval, in conformity with the preceding paragraph, shall be fined by the director not more than $10,000."

SECTION 2. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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