Today’s post comes from our colleague Kate Fitzgerald of New York. We represent a client whose hands were directly injured a few years ago. The insurance company, as part of its defense, is raising a provision in the law which requires an injured worker to file a claim for a direct injury within two years of [...]
On January 13, the North Carolina Department of Labor announced that 53 people died on the job in North Carolina in 2011. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry was quoted as saying: “the real tragedy is that all of the these fatalities could have been avoided.” I wholeheartedly agree. 53 deaths is 53 too many. When I see news [...]
As a workers’ compensation lawyer, by the time clients come to me they have often already had a series of frustrating interactions with their employers, insurance adjusters and sometimes even medical professionals. Clients come to me feeling stressed by these experiences. My adversaries are not always easy to negotiate with, and over a long career [...]
Last week Margaret Anderson, a Park Ranger at Mount Ranier National Park, was killed by an Iraq war veteran who may have been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Her tragic death reminded me of several workers’ I have represented who had this condition after experiencing and/or witnessing horrific trauma in the workplace. One [...]
When we hear about workplace fraud, most of us think of a worker faking an injury to receive benefits that he or she does not deserve. While that kind of fraud does exist, it is minor compared to the big money lost to fraud from companies. The big money lost to fraud comes from companies, [...]
Today’s post comes to just from my colleague Jon Gelman of New Jersey. The Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-aside Portal (WCMSAP) application has gone “live” and is now available for users. WCMSAP allows submitters of Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Arrangements (WCMSAs) to directly enter case information, upload documentation, and receive case status information through the use of [...]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzT6ZGp3eKQ] Last September I invited Dan Reilly from the Teamsters to give a continuing legal education talk at the annual conference of the Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group. Dan presented on the topic of employer fraud, and in particular on an increasingly common practice known as misclassification. The video above is just a [...]
Today’s post comes to us from Jon Gelman of New Jersey. In today’s tough economy, temporary employment is a holiday blessing for many, but it can come with some very real dangers. This holiday season, more than in the past, there will be a serious challenge to workers’ who are taking on temporary jobs. As [...]
Today’s post comes to us from my colleague Tom Domer of Wisconsin. This is isn’t the first post that has appeared on this blog on unethical and illegal employer practices. In the future, we will continue to cover issues like cost shifting and worker misclassification, which pose ever increasing problems for today’s workers’. Seasoned workers’ compensation [...]
Many people are confronted with death or disability whether as a result of an accident or otherwise. We do our best to help those who were wronged by another or hurt on the job to receive compensation for their injuries. But compensation cannot cure the underlying problem, only help to make life more bearable. True [...]