Several years ago I had declined to represent an injured truck driver until his wife called me and said she found a suicide note and asked me to reconsider. I did and was able to help him. I believe there is a connection between suicide and workers’’ compensation. Clearly the pain of an injury, coupled [...]
Today’s post comes to us from our colleague Edgar Romano at Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano, LLP in New York. Hotels can be a dangerous place to work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, of all service industry workers’, hotel workers’ have the highest rate of injury at 5%. The average for [...]
Today’s post comes to us from our colleagues Matt Funk and John Merlino of Brecher Fishman Pasternack Walsh Tilker & Ziegler in New York. QUESTION: I DID NOT PUNCH IN FOR WORK. DOES THIS MEAN I AM NOT COVERED IF I HAVE AN ACCIDENT? ANSWER: IF YOU ARE AT WORK AND YOU DON’T PUNCH IN, [...]
Last week we posted on how Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which would require that every American must have health insurance, has been struck down by a U.S. Circuit Court. However, the Obama administration and 26 states filed appeals against this ruling, and the Supreme Court is widely expected to rule on the appeal this fall. [...]
On September 28th, 2011, the Obama administration and 26 states filed appeals to a lower court ruling that struck down a provision of the Affordable Care Act (the Obama health care law) that required every American to have health insurance. The Supreme Court is widely expected to rule on the appeal this fall, and its [...]
Earlier this year, Reuters Legal reported an increase in the inclusion of content on social networking sites as evidence in trials, particularly personal injury cases. Two state courts and a Federal ruling have given defendants access to classified photos and postings, indicating a legal shift and reflecting a larger conversation about the privacy of personal [...]
Earlier this week we shared a post about a surprisingly common illness affecting retired NFL players: chronic obesity. In 1990, less than 70 players in the NFL weighed more than 300 pounds. Today there are more than 350 who weigh that much. All this weight adds up to higher death rates for retired NFL linemen [...]
Our post for today comes to us from our colleague Rod Rehm of Rehm, Bennett & Moore in Nebraska. On Tuesday the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a recommendation that could affect millions of truckers. The NTSB proposed that commercial drivers be banned from using both hand-held and hands-free mobile phones while driving on the [...]
Most people know that football is dangerous. We see reports of NFL players with every kind of gruesome injury imaginable. Even suicidal depression, it turns out, is a potential hazard of playing football. Of course playing in the NFL is both rewarding and risky. There is one common health problem among NFL players, however, that [...]
This article originally appeared in the Jernigan Law Firm Summer 2011 newsletter. Without a major public outcry, the original workers’ compensation bill proposed to the North Carolina legislature would likely have passed. That would have been a disaster for workers’ in our state. We would like to sincerely thank everyone who participated. Let’s make sure [...]