The Iowa Supreme Court resolved a longstanding battle between Travelers Insurance Company and Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance over which company should compensate the family of a fallen volunteer firefighter, Justin Fauer. Brace yourself: the backstory is pretty weird.
A farmer named Dwight Johnson (of Johnson Valley Beef Farms) fell into a manure pit and got overwhelmed by methane gases. His employee, Fauer, noticed his boss’ plight and ran to tell Johnson’s wife to call the police. Fauer then returned to the pit and tried to help his boss out. But he, too, got overwhelmed by the methane and died in the pit.
So what led to the big workers’ comp battle? Well, Fauer was a volunteer fire fighter as well as a farmhand. So the farm’s insurance company as well as the volunteer firefighter’s insurance company have been duking it out in court (all the way up to the Iowa Supreme Court) over which firm should be liable for his family’s workers’ comp benefits.
Ultimately, Grinnell (which represented the farm) lost because of technical reasons pursuant to whether Fauer acted in the capacity of a volunteer firefighter or a farmhand. But without getting into too much detail about why, it’s important to recognize the broader implications. The length to which these two insurance companies went to avoid liability no doubt used up tremendous resources and court time. And this suggests a bigger problem – a broader problem – namely that North Carolina workers’ compensation cases (and similar cases throughout the US) can often get way too bogged down in the details at the expense of seeing that real justice gets done and that injured and needy claimants get their due.
The Moral: When the law gets overly technical, court battles drain much needed resources for no real justice-serving purpose.
Moving away from the abstract now… if you or someone you care about has been injured in an acute workplace accident or suffered an occupational disease or repetitive strain injury, you may want to seek guidance from a competent North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm. Understanding your rights is the key to reaching the best possible settlement.
More Web Resources
Travelers Insurance Company v. Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance
After all, workers’ comp aims to empower hurt employees to return to a life of productivity, happiness, and health. And while it’s certainly important (and often necessary) to understand how to fight battles against bad faith insurance companies and employers that unfairly refuse to discuss your North Carolina workers compensation claim – it’s equally crucial to explore methods to speed up and augment recovery from illnesses and injuries.
This post will address some “secret” ways to improve rehabilitation:
1. Watch Your Diet
The ingestion of processed vegetable oils, trans fats, refined carbohydrates, and refined sugars has all been associated with aging, obesity, Type-2 diabetes, and immune system problems. By avoiding these foods and instead eating healthy protein and fats and fresh fruits and vegetables, you may be able to improve your body’s capacity to heal itself.
2. Improve Your Muscular Strength
In the wake of a debilitating injury, you may not have much time, energy, or motivation to hit the gym or even do basic physical activity. But the cultivation of muscular strength is essential for rehabilitation for many injuries – particularly injuries like sprains and soft tissue damage. Of course, always consult your physician and work with a professional physical therapist to make sure you don’t hurt yourself as you build your strength back.
3. Stress reduction
When you go through periods of excessive stress, your body produces the hormone cortisol. A little cortisol is okay, but so called “hypercortisolemia” – the over-production of cortisol – can cause a wide range of problems, including damage to your immune system. So try to fight back against stress by getting enough sleep, engaging in recreational activities, doing meditation and relaxation exercises, and spending time around people you love.
4. Rest
If you are a workaholic by nature, you may find it very difficult to stunt your urge to “get back out there” as soon as possible. To ensure your fastest recovery, ironically, you need to make sure that you don’t take on too much too soon.
If you need help responding to an urgent North Carolina workers’ compensation matter, a quality and experienced law firm can help you explore your rights and make sure that you don’t make any significant mistakes that would hamper your claim or delay your benefits.
More Web Resources
The Case against Sugar (Robert Lustig lecture)
The Case for Muscular Strength
The tragedy shocked central Connecticut. The employees and owners of Hartford Distributors (along with the company’s insurer, Hanover Insurance) must still be reeling from the disaster. Since the eight deaths occurred at work, the families of the slain employees should be eligible to collect death benefits through workers’ compensation. The families will have until next August 3rd to file claims, and analysts believe they will likely be able to secure hefty settlements given the grisly and very public nature of the deaths.
Interestingly, some industry analysts believe that the implications of this workers’ comp case could go well beyond Manchester and reverberate throughout the entire beverage manufacturing industry. After all, insurance companies set their rates by calculating risk probabilities. And this Manchester shooting and the (likely) large workers’ comp settlements it will yield will put pressure on insurers to revise how they appraise the risk of insuring beverage companies. So, in a very indirect way, the shooting could have ultimate implications for North Carolina workers’ compensation insurance.
If you or a coworker or a family member has suffered serious injuries at work, you likely need savvy guidance about how to proceed. Often, injured workers who don’t understand this system wind up with inadequate compensation for their disabilities. This makes the process of getting rehabilitated and returning to work that much more difficult – particularly in today’s testing economy. For help now with your case, get in touch with a creditable and results-proven North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm.
More Web Resources
Hartford Distributors
1. Typing Injuries
Warning Signs: You feel numbness and tingling in your fingers, your arms ache or throb at the end of the day, you notice that you are adopting “crutches” such as typing with your non-dominant hand or intentionally “slacking off” so that you don’t have to type as much.
Solution: Talk to your employer about a better ergonomic set-up. Improve your posture and muscular conditioning. Take frequent breaks. See a physical therapist to treat your “trigger points” with modalities like acupuncture, massage, and microstretching.
2. Slip and Falls Waiting to Happen
Warning Signs: “Near misses” in which you and or other employees “almost” get into serious injuries, jokes around the office that a piece of equipment is an “accident waiting to happen” or a “fire trap.”
Solution: As quickly as possible, bring the problem to the attention of your boss and/or manager. Document any or all attempts you make to get the problems fixed. If your immediate manager won’t help, consider going up the chain of command to complain.
3. Exposure to Chronic Toxins
Warning Signs: If you work with chemicals, and you come home with a headache or being unable to breathe; if you notice that you are getting a rash or other allergic reaction to chemicals, glass, plastics, or other materials used at your work; if you get dizzy or feel sick at work when you use a certain piece of equipment or a certain kind of chemical or material.
Solution: Report the problem to your manager as soon as possible. You might be able to solve this by wearing better safety equipment, such as a ventilator or mask. Alternatively, you may need to stop using whatever product or material is causing the allergic or toxic reaction.
If it’s too late – and you’ve already been injured or gotten an occupational disease – and you need assistance with a North Carolina workers’ compensation issue, it behooves you to consult with an experienced law firm that specializes in North Carolina workers’ compensation. The faster you get professional legal assistance, the easier it will likely be to start collecting benefits.
More Web Resources
]]>The Civitas Institute in Raleigh reported that the gap between the incomes of public and private sector workers in NC has doubled since 2000. Back at the turn of the century, state employees got paid approximately $32,800 annually; whereas private workers got around $30,977. This represented around a 6% gap. Nine years later, that gap rose to more than 12% – state employees received over $44,100 annually, while private employees averaged around $39,300. And these figures don’t take into account benefits packages, which could theoretically skew the gap between public and private incomes even wider.
So what do these new numbers mean for North Carolina workers’ compensation policy? The conservative Civitas Institute appears to be implying that state workers “have it too good.” But the survey doesn’t suggest an immediate fix to ensure fairness and to nurture and cultivate conditions that would reduce injuries at work and generally relieve the state system of financial stress.
Some experts argue that the ultimate key to resolving both the wage gap outlined here and the general stresses on the benefit system is to introduce more responsive and proactive policies to improve workplace safety. In particular, it may be helpful to strive to reduce chronic and preventable injuries like typing injuries by doing things like instituting mandatory break policies, standards for ergonomic desks and typewriters, and urging employers and employees alike to cut back on the amount of sugar they consume.
If you or someone you love – or a co-worker – has been hurt, and you have questions about hot to collect benefits, how to deal with an employer who refused to cooperative, or how to manage a bad faith insurer, look to an experienced North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm to lead you in a strategic direction.
More Web Resources
Study Shows Pay Gap Between NC Public And Private Workers Doubles
]]>Since inflation is not a factor, this implies that the wage increase is real – much needed relief for the state’s beleaguered workforce. Analysts found that the average weekly wage in August 2009 was $758.44 – this year, the wage was $759.60. That may not sound much – and indeed it’s only a 0.15% increase – but it does augur well, particularly if you see the rise in the context of the state’s slowly improving unemployment numbers. Back in February, NC had double-digit unemployment topping out at over 11%. The latest statistics show that the unemployment rate has fallen for four months in a row and finally dropped back into single-digits.
While these numbers may be encouraging, they should by no means cause for celebration. Predicting the long-term success of the state’s economy is notoriously a tricky business. However, for workers who have been surviving on North Carolina workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits, this news may help to kindle a renewed sense of industry, entrepreneurial activity, and general hope.
All that said, if you or someone you care for has been waylaid by an injury or occupational disease, and you are struggling to make ends meet while battling your employer or/and an insurance company, all of these positive signs may be beside the point. What you need is actionable strategic help with your case. To that end, it almost certainly makes sense for you to consult with a result-proven and highly credentialed North Carolina workers’ compensation firm to protect your rights and benefits.
More Web Resources
]]>The 43-year-old Gamble waitressed at Red Robin Restaurant in 2007. She allegedly hurt her back at work. In 2008, a judge granted her disability benefits of $360 a week. All told, she collected $4,000+ in expenses and $23,000+ in disability payments. However, the restaurant’s insurance representatives hired private investigators to track down Ms. Gamble. They found her working as an exotic dancer at CR Fanny’s Gentleman’s Club in nearby Wilson. The PIs taped her stripping and used this evidence to prove that her workers’ comp claim was fraudulent.
Obviously, any North Carolina workers’ compensation fraud case hurts everyone else in the system. When people fake disabilities or play up injuries to get benefits, this not only drains resources that could otherwise be used to help people who really are injured – but it also creates a sense of mutual distrust. When insurers and employers lose trust, they tend to crack down by making the process more difficult and the investigations more probing, personal, and annoying.
All that said, in the case of Ms. Gamble, you have to feel some sympathy for this woman. It sounds like she has had a very hard go of it. It’s obviously impossible to know her full story just from a news report. But it is important to remember that North Carolina workers’ compensation fraud comes in many flavors – some people purposely bilk the system to take advantage of loopholes; other people just get into desperate straits and do desperate and stupid things.
If you or a family member faces problems collecting benefits, your focus is 100% on getting these issues resolved ASAP. To that end, you might be well advised to set up a free consultation with a local North Carolina workers’ compensation firm to explore your rights, build a strategy to get your benefits and to resolve any agita associated with your claim, and work towards building a sustainable financial future for you and your family.
More Web Resources
CR Fanny’s Gentleman’s Club
Bucks woman to stand trial in workers' comp case
According to the Associated Press, a 53-year-old New York woman named Susan Tansosch has been ordered to pay over $60,000 in restitution to the United States Postal Service for workers’ comp fraud, pursuant to charges that she falsely claimed that she had no additional income streams – when she had been making significant money selling goats.
Last Wednesday, Judge Thomas McAvoy sentenced Tansosch to four years probation and forced restitution to the USPS for making untrue statements to collect workers’ comp benefits from the federal government. The Department of Labor abruptly ended Tansosch’s benefits – all because she sold goats on the side.
This story drives home a point that many North Carolina workers’ compensation claimants often forget. Namely, that you need to read and understand the fine print of your benefits arrangement. If you fail to abide by the terms stipulated, you could wind up in court, in trouble, and in debt to the agency or insurer that provided the benefits to you.
There is no way to tell from this AP story whether or not Ms. Tansosch knew that selling goats would violate her workers’ comp arrangement. But don’t think that, just because you settle your North Carolina workers’ compensation case, that the situation will be permanently resolved. Insurance carriers are businesses. They investigate claims -- even after they have settled! -- to make sure that claimants are/were telling the truth about their injuries.
Managing the legal complications of a debate over your benefits can be a draining chore – one that you likely do not have the training to handle adroitly. That’s why, even if your case is relatively simple-seeming now, you might benefit from a consultation with a reputable and proven North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm. As the old adage goes, an ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure. Smart planning can mean the world for your workers’ comp case.
More Web Resources
NY goat-seller must pay back workers' comp
Investigators from the Honolulu Police Department’s White Collar Crime Unit discovered the scam and realized that Belaski had misrepresented his injury to his physicians, insurance company, and others. Mr. Belaski even testified under oath to being hurt. Mr. Belaski’s conviction of theft and perjury charges may dissuade others in the Aloha State from similarly trying to take advantage of the claims process to collect benefits illegally.
This blog has investigated a number of cases of workers’ comp fraud lately to try to highlight the shades and nuances of the law – and of the individuals who commit these crimes. It’s important not to paint these defendants with a broad brush. As we have seen recently, practically anyone can wind up as a defendant in a North Carolina workers’ compensation fraud case – from strippers to goat sellers to truckers.
If you cannot collect benefits, cannot deal efficiently with your employer or insurance company, or cannot figure out how to put your life and budget back together again after a significant injury or illness, you need good help. In particular, a qualified North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm can guide you towards good resources and ensure that you stay within the bounds of your benefits arrangement. A good attorney can also help you deal with uncooperative bosses or insurance companies.
More Web Resources
Case of Jacob Belaski
Honolulu Man Convicted in Hawaii’s First Workers’ Compensation Theft Related Case
]]>1. Take Breaks, Particularly When You Engage in Repetitive Work
Whether you are doing data entry, computer programming, sewing, or hair styling, or any other kind of repetitive work, ergonomic professionals will urge you to take regular breaks to avoid injuries to your hands, arms, shoulders, and back. Repetitive stress injuries typically result from long-term abuse of muscles, bad posture, and “Type A” enthusiastic work habits. This may sound silly, but one thing you can do is – every 30 minutes or so, or whatever your employer will allow – take two to three minutes to lie down on the ground and let your spine and back relax before you start doing your repetitive activity.
2. Cut Back on Sugar and Processed Foods
More and more studies have linked excess sugar and high fructose corn syrup consumption with diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. Although these aren’t occupational diseases, when you get obese and pre-diabetic, you stand at a much greater risk of injury. And some evidence also suggests that excess sugar consumption can decrease your stamina, make you tired, and damage muscle and organ health – which will put you at greater risk of on-the-job injury.
3. Increase Your Strength
Strength training helps with muscular flexibility, improves bone density, leads to innumerable other health benefits, according to abundant medical literature. Many employees neglect effective strength training. But as we age, we will see a natural deterioration of our muscular strength (particularly in places like our lower backs) unless we actively work to improve strength in those areas.
4. Don’t Wait Until a Problem Gets “Too Big”
If you feel like you are getting hurt or you could potentially get hurt at work, tell your employer at once. Don’t keep your concerns to yourself. Your employer can and should want to help you solve the problem. For instance, say you type at an ergonomically dysfunctional workstation. Tell your boss, so he or she can help you solve your ergonomic problems and thus help you prevent injury. Speak up!
Do you need help with a North Carolina workers’ compensation benefits case? Don’t let bad faith insurers, uncooperative bosses, or confusion beat you down – get help from a qualified and well-credentialed NC workers’ comp law firm today.
More Web Resources
]]>Background
Pursuant to the massive BP oil well spill – which this blog actually covered just weeks after the explosion happened – the Obama administration imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling to prevent additional catastrophes similar to what happened to the Deepwater Horizon. Unfortunately, by imposing this moratorium, the administration essentially put thousands of oil rig workers on a forced hiatus. To compensate these workers and others harmed by the spill, the White House assigned Ken Feinberg to administer a $20 billion Oil Spill Fund. (In case you don’t recall, Feinberg was the same man who administered the reparation fund for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.) Although Feinberg has promised to be very lenient as to the proof that he and his team will require to grant compensation, many industry workers are confused. And employers and workers in peripheral industries – even way up here in North Carolina – also must contend with uncertainty and work slowdowns associated indirectly with the BP spill.
In short, North Carolina workers’ compensation experts are busy trying to figure out whether -- if at all -- the BP spill money will translate to compensation for NC employees and others glancingly impacted. One school of thought – the predominant one – says that the oil spill will have a negligible effect, since it’s so far away. Another theory suggests that the spill will have a domino effect, essentially ricocheting through the economy of states that touch the Gulf and Mid Atlantic. In either case, unless you are directly working on a rig or directly impacted by this spill, it’s unlikely that you will be able to collect from the nationally established fund. But this doesn’t mean that the spill won’t affect you in indirect ways.
The key is to figure out what’s in your circle of control and influence. What can you personally do to improve your chances of collecting North Carolina workers’ compensation benefits in a timely fashion and to work around obstacles thrown up by your employer, the North Carolina Industrial Commission or an insurance company?
To that end, you will likely need legal guidance. Trust your case to a veteran North Carolina workers’ compensation attorney – one who has handled many similar kinds of cases in the past successfully.
More Web Resources:
North Carolina Industrial Commission
As this blog has often discussed, North Carolina workers’ compensation fraud matters create tensions throughout the system and ultimately harm all major players involved: insurance companies, employers, legislators, and genuinely injured employees. It’s this latter category that is most vulnerable – subsequent to fraud cases like this one, legitimately hurt workers will likely have a harder time in Colorado collecting benefits without hassle. When insurance companies and employers grow suspicious of claimants, they tend to require higher burdens of proof and conduct longer investigations as to the veracity of claims.
If you’ve been the victim of undue harassment, frustration, or non-compliance by your employer or your employer’s insurance company, it may behoove you to seek out the counsel of a North Carolina workers’ compensation attorney to figure out how to resolve your situation adequately, get the benefits you want, and get these issues off your mind so you can focus on recovering and fixing your financial circumstances.
More Web Resources:
Michelle McKee
The President’s initiative, Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment (POWER) compels agencies to improve in 7 categories of performance by the close of FY 2014. These include reducing total injury/illness rates, reducing lost time and illness rates, analyzing lost time data, increasing the timely filing of wage loss and workers’ comp claims, reducing loss production rates, and speeding employees’ return to their jobs. On Wednesday, the House Committee will further explore how to deal with federal workplace injuries.
How will POWER impact the North Carolina’s workers’ compensation system? At this point, it’s obviously too early to tell. Clearly, if relevant agencies can impose stricter standards to simultaneously promote better care, better service, and faster re-employment, this would be a win-win-win for all parties concerned. But some critics worry that, in their rush to comply with POWER, agencies might accidentally (or purposefully) disempower some claimants. For instance, by trying to enforce point number 7 of POWER’s Plan (speeding employees back to work), agencies might inadvertently compel seriously injured or sick people to take on work that they are not ready for yet. Of course, it’s obviously way too early to weigh in on the merits of this order, but it is certain to change the playing field.
Do you or a loved one need help with your workers’ comp case? Have you been having trouble with your insurance company, employer, or provider? If so, consider getting the advice of a respected and credentialed North Carolina workers’ compensation attorney today.
More Web Resources:
Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment
Reid played for the Bears from 2003 to 2006. The team released him in 2006 to be an unrestricted free agent. His settlement was the biggest settlement for a pro athlete in Illinois history; although another ex-Bear, Mike Brown, recently collected $140,000 for injuries he suffered to his foot and leg while he played for the Bears. More ex-Bears may be eligible to collect additional funds, according to state sports reporters.
How will Reid’s settlement impact similar North Carolina workers’ compensation cases, if at all? Will ex-Panthers be eligible for similarly large payouts? Truth be told, the states individually are in the process of working out how to compensate NFL athletes (and athletes in other sports). And it will likely be several years before policy analysts have enough data to draw any clear conclusions. However, with all the financial pressure on state workers’ compensation agencies to tighten their budgets – and the new POWER initiative launched by the Obama administration, which this blog reported on earlier in the week – it may be more difficult for claimants to win relevant arguments.
Irrespective of what happens to ex-NFLers like Reid and Brown, what can you personally do to improve the likelihood of collecting fair and flexible benefits for your injury or workplace illness?
If you suffered a chronic, debilitating injury at work such as a knee problem or typing injury – or if you got hurt in some kind of acute accident – such as a slip and fall or work-related car accident – you must simultaneously struggle under a number of burdens. First, you must deal with the medical recuperation, which can be exhausting and emotionally draining in and of itself. Then, you need to figure out how to rehabilitate yourself and get back to work in some fashion ASAP – and/or how to deal with your financial situation. And lastly, under certain circumstances, you might have to fight back against unwilling employers, recalcitrant insurance companies, and bureaucratic red tape to get benefits paid out in a timely fashion.
With all these stresses on your shoulders, it may behoove you to discuss your problems with a qualified North Carolina workers’ compensation attorney. A good lawyer can simplify your strategy, relieve you of logistical and emotional stresses, and help you collect appropriate payments without hassle or frustration.
More Web Resources:
]]>Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 270 to 153 to extend some unemployment benefits for people who have been long out of work; however, the US Senate has thus far refused to pass that measure – or any like it – into law. This dispiriting news comes on the heels of a grim jobs report in June that has prompted economists – including many traditionally chipper analysts – to voice fears that the US may be plunging into a “double dip” recession – a dangerous circumstance that could put even more pressure on workers who rely on unemployment benefits and North Carolina workers’ compensation to provide for themselves and their children.
On the upside, the North Carolina unemployment rate appears to be dropping in some key counties. Edgecombe County saw its unemployment rate fall from a high of 17.2% in January to 14.8% in May. Both the Twin Cities and Nash Counties saw better job markets – and, all told, 86 North Carolina counties saw better numbers in May. So this might be a silver lining to an otherwise grim cloud of North Carolina workers’ compensation news.
Given all the dodgy financial news, injured and sick workers more than ever need to follow up their North Carolina workers’ compensation cases carefully. Recalcitrant employers, uncooperative insurance companies and paperwork-related snafus can result in your not getting timely benefits. All sorts of secondary consequences can come off of that – including missed credit card payments and mortgage payments.
If you or a loved one has any questions or concerns about how to get benefits or keep them coming, get in touch today with a creditable and experienced North Carolina workers’ compensation attorney. Don’t wait until the electric company turns out your lights and you lose all sources of income. Protect yourself by doing due diligence and coming up with a budget and get-back-to-work plan that’s plausible and robust.
More Web Resources:
US lawmakers extend jobless benefits
Unemployment signs look better