All posts by Kit Case

The Right to a Safe Workplace

Today’s post comes from guest author Todd Bennett, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.

Under federal law, every employee has the right to a safe workplace. If you believe your workplace is dangerous and changes in safety policy are ignored, you can request an inspection from OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).

Workers’ compensation, which is regulated on a state-by-state level, covers medical bills, lost wages, disability and vocational rehabilitation services for employees injured on the job. If you have any questions regarding these benefits, please contact an experienced lawyer in your area.

 If you believe you work in an unsafe work area, here are some tips to be aware of to make sure your workplace is as safe as possible, and you protect yourself from significant injury:

  1.  Know the hazards in your workplace.
  2. While in a seated position, keep your shoulders in line with your hips. Use good form when lifting.
  3. Injuries occur when workers get tired. Take breaks when you’re tired.
  4. Do not skip safety procedures just because it makes the job easier or quicker. Using dangerous machinery is the one of the leading causes of work injuries.
  5. Be aware of where emergency shutoff switches are located.
  6. Report unsafe work areas.
  7. Wear proper safety equipment.

If you are injured due to an unsafe workplace, and you are unsure of the benefits that you are entitled to, contact an experienced attorney in your area.

Understanding Your Auto Insurance – Online Flip-Book

The Washington State Association for Justice (WSAJ) has released their publication “Understanding Your Auto Insurance” as an online flip-book. This booklet explains the various components that make up auto insurance coverage, including liability coverage, personal injury protection (PIP) coverage and underinsured motorist, collision and comprehensive coverage options. Details about who is covered under a policy and what the policy may cover are outlined. Steps to take if an accident occurs are explained in detail, as well.

This booklet is a great resource and should be on everyone’s required reading list.

Facebook Pictures’ Use Evolving in Workers’ Compensation Cases

Today’s post comes from guest author Brody Ockander, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.

We routinely advise our clients to be aware of the possible discovery of Facebook and other social media sites. First step – check your privacy settings. If you do not control your privacy settings, your employer or the insurance carrier may easily access your posts. Also, do not post comments about your case, your employer, or your injury online.

In the past, I have warned about the possible pitfalls of social media on a workers’ compensation claim.

However, the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court has never really ruled on Facebook in the context of discovery matters in a work comp claim, meaning how much access can your employer have to your Facebook account if you file a workers’ compensation claim? 

Recently, however, the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court (at least one judge) has taken the position that in order for your employer to gain access to photographs from your Facebook profile, it must “make a showing of the necessary factual predicate underlying [the] broad request for access.” In other words, your employer must have a decent reason to suspect that a certain photograph or something from your Facebook account has the potential to be relevant to the work comp case before the court will simply grant full access to your Facebook account to your employer.

Therefore, depending on your situation, your Facebook may be safe from your employer to some degree. However, this is a cautionary tale to remind you that even though your employer cannot simply have blanket access to all of your Facebook photos – at least according to one Nebraska judge – it does not mean that your Facebook photos or posts are necessarily safe from your employer gaining access to them at some point during your work comp case. I think the judge in this case takes a step in right direction, but you still must be aware that anything you put on Facebook may be subject to discovery (i.e., your employer may still possibly get access to it) at some point in the future.

Pierce County, WA Landscaper Charged with Skipping Out on Workers’ Comp Coverage

          A Pierce County, WA landscaper has been charged with failing to pay workers’ compensation insurance after one of his employees was injured on the job.

           Kenneth Ivan Winters, 49, faces one count of doing business without workers’ comp insurance and seven counts of making false reports to the Department of Labor & Industries, according to charging papers. Each charge is a Class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

           The Lakewood man pleaded not guilty to the charges Wednesday, February 19, 2014 in Pierce County Superior Court. His trial was set for May 1.

           According to charging papers filed by the Washington Attorney General’s office, authorities were alerted to the case when an employee filed an on-the-job injury claim while working for Winters’ business, Executive Lawn Care, in October 2012.

           The worker told an L&I investigator that Winters, who was on site when the employee was hurt, threatened him and his family if he filed a claim with L&I, charging papers said. The employee said he had worked for Winters from 2002 until the day he was injured.

           Winters’ workers’ comp coverage had been revoked eight months earlier for failing to pay premiums. However, charging papers allege, he continued to employ the worker full time until the injury. Winters told an L&I investigator he started the business in 1990, and at one time had up to six employees. He said business slowed and his main employee was the worker who became injured, and occasionally the worker’s brother.

           As of Jan. 7, 2014, the employee’s claim has cost L&I more than $67,000 in medical expenses and lost wage payments, charging papers said.

           Businesses that don’t pay workers’ comp insurance gain an unfair advantage over companies that pay their fair share. A 2007 study found that an estimated 55,000 employers skipped out on paying $34.5 million in workers’ comp insurance in Washington state in 2006, causing legitimate employers to pay higher premiums.

         Washington state is one of the few states in the nation where employers and workers both pay a share of the workers’ compensation premiums.  The press release from the Department of Labor and Industries did not indicate whether this worker’s payroll deductions had continued even when his workers’ compensation coverage had lapsed.  If this was the case, this employer’s fraud would represent wage theft, as well.

         

Removing Age Threshold in Stuctured Settlements

So many options…

     The Washington State Senate adopted changes to the legislation governing structured settlements in workers’ compensation claims to remove the gradual implementation of the system via age-bands.  When initially implemented, CRSSAs (compromise and release structured settlement agreements) were available to injured workers aged 55 and over, with provisions for that age to slowly drop over a span of several years, down to age 50.  The Second Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5127, summarized here and adopted on January 29, 2014, would remove the age requirement, allowing any injured worker over the age of 18 to access CRSSAs as an alternative to receiving benefits typically available in a standard claim. This legislation should be watched as it makes it’s way through the system.

     The Washington Association for Justice and many claimant representatives are strongly opposed to this change.  Concerns include the inclination for an injured worker to grasp at a structured settlement in a time of dire financial need when, in the long-run, the benefits available in a claim would provide a fuller recovery – financially, physically and vocationally.  CRSSAs are seen to benefit the business community to a greater degree by decreasing claim costs.  The trend can also disproportionately impact workers of various income groups.  Those injured workers with strong financial standing – a working spouse, savings in the bank, alternate income such as a disability pension through a union or investment income – can more easily enter into a CRSSA, gaining easy approval by the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.  Such approvals are not readily available for injured workers in lower income brackets, with no alternate income or savings, and particularly those with heavy debt to income ratios.  They may lose more in the way of benefits if a CRSSA is approved, as they likely do not have equal access to healthcare (even if insured, co-pays can eat up meager savings) and are more likely to return to low-wage jobs after an injury, making it harder to recover financially after an injury.  Many injured workers who feel they need an influx of cash to avoid total financial devastation – those that were just getting by on their wages and whose debt begins to snowball quickly after an injury – may face disappointment when they attempt to settle via a CRSSA, only to be told by the Board that it is not in their best interest.  Can’t win for losing.

     My concern is not so focused on the age of the worker who wishes to seek a CRSSA, but the plight of those injured workers who do not have the benefit of legal counsel when making this decision.  I can envision a worker of younger years benefiting from the freedom to chose their future path with the assistance of a CRSSA, but I worry that, without full knowledge of what could be available under the claim if it were allowed to play out, unrepresented workers of all ages may make major decisions with short-sighted gains in mind, only to regret those decisions down the line. 

     I would encourage readers to review this legislation and participate in the process by contacting your representatives in Olympia to share your thoughts and concerns.

Photo credit: andybvrs / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Scholarships for High School Seniors

     As part of the Washington State Association for Justice’s commitment to foster an awareness and understanding of the important role that the civil justice system plays in our society, the Washington State Association for Justice sponsors scholarship programs for high school seniors in Washington state. The application deadline for 2014 is March 14th for the following scholarships:

2014 American Justice Video Scholarship Program 

Applicants will be asked to produce a Public Service Announcement (PSA). In 2014, two PSA’s will be selected as scholarship recipients. Each year a new video topic will be chosen, based on WSAJ’s mission statement ideals and dealing with advocacy in the American justice system, and related issues. The 2014 topic is the dangers of texting and driving.

Please click HERE for the 2014 application.

2014 WSAJ Presidents’ Scholarship
First awarded in 1991, the WSAJ President’s Scholarship was established to support and encourage the efforts of high school students who have overcome obstacles to achieve academically and socially. Past recipients have included cancer survivors, auto accident victims and teenagers with physical challenges. Competition for the scholarship has increased each year.

Please clikc HERE for the 2014 application.

If you have questions about either scholarship program, please contact WSAJ directly.

Made in America: American Wokers Honored on a USPS Commemorative Stamp

American Workers – USPS Stamp

Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Gelman, from Jon L Gelman LLC.

The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes,” social activist Helen Keller wrote in 1908, “but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.” The Made in America: Building a Nation Forever® stamps honor the courageous workers who helped build our country.

This issuance features five different panes, each with the same 12 stamps, but anchored by different selvage photos. Three of the selvage images and eleven of the black and white stamp images were taken by photographer Lewis Hine, a chronicler of early 20th-century industry.

The panes are designed in three rows of four stamps. In the top row are an airplane maker, a derrick man on the Empire State Building, a millinery apprentice, and a man on a hoisting ball on the Empire State Building. In the middle row are a linotyper in a publishing house, a welder on the Empire State Building, a coal miner, and riveters on the Empire State Building. (The coal miner stamp is the only one of the 12 that does not feature a Hine photograph. The image is from the Kansas State Historical Society.) In the bottom row are a powerhouse mechanic, a railroad track walker, a textile worker, and a man guiding a beam on the Empire State Building.

On the selvage, Hine’s images include two Empire State Building iron workers and a General Electric worker measuring the bearings in a casting. The fourth selvage photograph is the same image of the coal miner that appears in the stamp pane. The final selvage photograph, taken by Margaret Bourke-White, depicts a female welder.

Derry Noyes was the project’s art director and designer. The Made in America: Building a Nation stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps in self-adhesive panes of 12. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.

Made in the USA.

Issue Date: August 8, 2013

Is It Really WorkMAN’s Compensation or Workers’ Compensation?

Today’s post comes from guest author Brody Ockander, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.

I often hear my clients refer to their work-injury claim by the antiquated term, “workman’s compensation.” This was formerly the common vernacular when referring to a work-injury claim. Now however, most – if not all – jurisdictions have adopted the more gender-neutral term “workers’ compensation.”

Why the change? While one would have a strong argument that the change reflects the new age of political correctness, an equally compelling case can be made that the change was merely to reflect the increasing numbers of work injuries suffered by women. When compared to the times when workers’ compensation laws were initially enacted, more and more women have moved into industrial jobs. Of course, it naturally follows that as women move into more dangerous and laborious jobs, more women are going to be injured on the job.

For example, in Nebraska 42.7% of all reported work injuries were to women, according to the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court Statistical Report For Injury Years 2003 – 2012.  So, while I certainly understand when my clients say “workman’s compensation,” once in a while I jokingly remind them that all injured workers are covered, regardless of their gender. 

North Dakota blast prompts review of oil train safety

Safety of oil cars to be reviewed

Today’s post was shared by Gelman on Workplace Injuries and comes from www.latimes.com

A federal safety alert Thursday warned that crude oil flowing out of new fields in North Dakota may be more flammable than expected, a caution that comes several days after a train carrying about 3.5 million gallons of the same oil crashed in the state and set off a massive explosion.

The accident on the BNSF Railway, the fourth such explosion in North America involving crude oil trains, has fed mounting concerns over public safety as the rail industry sharply increases the use of rail to transport surging crude production in North Dakota, Texas and Colorado.

Following the latest derailment and crash, which forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents from the town of Casselton, the National Transportation Safety Board has launched the nation’s first broad examination of the safety of moving petroleum by rail.

Trains carrying oil have multiplied across the country as environmental concerns and political maneuvering have delayed approval of a major new pipeline to transport oil to Gulf Coast refineries. The issue may be most crucial for cities in the West, which were often founded and developed by railroads so that main lines go directly through the centers of today’s urban areas.

Crude oil shipments by rail have shot up 25-fold in the last several years as producers rush oil from newly developing shale fields to market. California alone has seen a fourfold increase over the last year, with current shipments of about 200,000 barrels a month.

Refinery operators this…

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Settling a Workers’ Compensation Claim – Future Medicals and Medicare

Today’s post comes from guest author Kristina Brown Thompson, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

Will Medicare cover my future medical expenses for my workers’ compensation injury if I settle my case? Yes, no, maybe…the answer to this question is always a tricky one. In fact, this is one of the most complex questions that will confront an injured worker at the time of settlement.

Most settlements are final. Once you agree, you may have created a binding contract that will have serious financial repercussions for you and your family. It’s best to be prepared ahead of time so you fully understand the potential impact of a settlement. Settlement agreements cannot be set aside except in very rare circumstances. Before settling your case, you should take a full accounting of your future medical expenses and your insurance coverage. In reviewing your medical needs, do not forget to account for over-the-counter medications. These costs add up quickly over time.

If you are already a Medicare beneficiary, it’s quite likely you will need to set aside a portion of your settlement for future medical expenses. Medicare may refuse to pay for medical coverage relating to your injuries unless you’ve allocated some of the settlement funds for future medicals. Determining how much to set-aside is another complicated question and usually an outside company is hired to help assist with this determination.

Furthermore, injured workers must also take into consideration the fact that there are certain medical expenses that Medicare may not cover. For example, when an injured worker needs someone to take care of them. Medicare will not pay for these services so the injured worker would be forced to pay if she failed to negotiate this amount prior to settlement. Also, even when Medicare does help foot the bill, the injured worker will still likely pay the coinsurance amount (typically 20%). In short, be careful and think about future medical expenses.