Judge Paul Hawkes – History of a Novel Approach to Deliver Better Service – Part 1

Judge Paul Hawkes served on the First DCA for none years beginning in 2003. The First DCA handles all appeals of workers’ compensation cases. The court system weights types of cases in order to measure workload – the greater the weight the more difficult that type of case. When Judge Paul Hawkes was serving on the First DCA the court received about 500 workers’ compensation filings per year. Workers’ compensation cases had a ‘weight’ of 1.9 meaning it was about twice as time consuming or difficult as a typical judgment and sentence appeal.

Consequently, when Judge Paul Hawkes was on the First DCA workers’ compensation cases were equivalent to almost 1,000 criminal appeals.

The First DCA, as part of its performance measures, tracked the average time it took to process each type of case. Workers’ compensation cases, when Judge Paul Hawkes began his time on the court took almost 300 days to process. When Judge Paul Hawkes would attend bench and bar meetings or workers’ compensation conferences a constant complaint was how long it took for the court to process a workers’ compensation case. Judge Paul Hawkes also taught a law school class on workers’ compensation at FSU – College of Law. After spending time preparing for his classes, and participating in various seminars, Judge Paul Hawkes started to realize that the First DCA was not being funded by the Workers’ Compensation Administrative Trust Fund as required by section 440.50 Florida Statutes. Working with the other judges on the First DCA, and then the DCA budget commission, Judge Paul Hawkes put together a proposal that would provide needed additional resources to the First and also help the workers’ compensation bench and bar.