Employment & Workers Comp News

What type of cases will a Workman’s Comp attorney handle when I have been injured at my place of employment?

  This is a question asked by many people because most people do not know what this type of attorney takes on for cases until they have been injured at work and then they will seek out representation.

  The type of cases that a Workman’s Comp attorney will handle are ones that will help to make an injured employees life better, one that will give them compensation that will pay their medical bills as well as a settlement for the pain, suffering and loss wages they have suffered.

   Cases that not only will help now but also in the future such as:

v     Funds to cover future medical costs

v     The loss of future earning capacity for when the injury is one where the employee can not return to the type of employment they did when injured

v     Physical Impairment and disfigurement, when an employee has been severely injured.

v     Permanent disability benefits for the employee that has been disabled by their injury while at their place of employment.

v     Death benefits for dependents of the employed that was fatally injured at their place of employment.

  By the way if you live in Los Angeles and you are looking for a first class Los Angeles Workers Comp attorney then I highly suggest that you take a look at the Law offices of Peyman and Rahnama. They serve the greater Los Angeles area.There are some injuries that employees may not know that are considered injuries that have occurred on the job or because of the job and these people can seek the advice of a Workman’s Comp attorney that can advise you about the case you might have and these injuries include:

v     The employee who has had fractures while at their place of employment

v     The employee that has herniated discs

v     An employee with back sprains or strains

v     The employee who has been diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

v     The person who has had neck injuries

v     An employee who has suffered the amputation due to an employment injury

v     The employee that has suffered a brain injury

v     The person who has suffered a concussion

v     An employee that has been blinded at their place of employment

v     The employee that has been exposed with toxins

   The list goes on of injuries that can occur on the job and ones that employees should be compensated for such as shoulder injuries, head injuries, employees who suffer from ringing in the ears, headaches, loss of vision, hip, knee or leg injuries, ligament injuries, internal injuries, dental injuries and fibromyalgia just to name some of the afflictions that can occur during a persons time of employment and ones that Los Angeles Workman’s Comp attorneys know the law protects employees that have suffered any of these injuries and more as this is only a small list of what can be indicative of on the job injuries.

August 21, 2007
Filed under: Workers Compensation — reformingworkerscomp @ 10:15 pm Edit This
Honest employers, partricularly those in the various blue-collar fields, might be over-paying rates for workers’ compensation insurance due to the fact that their less than honest industry peers are cheating, a California advisory committee stated recently.

The report, which was in excess of forty pages long from the Committee on Health and Safety & Workers’ Compensation stated that this lack of integrity means that honest firms in a broad range of risky blue-collar fields may be paying as much as a staggering 8 times more for workers’ compensation insurance than they should be!

The 8 person advisory committee, which was commisioned by the governor and Legislature, sent the report to Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who has quickly formed an anti-fraud force.

Under the existing law, firms have to purchase workers’ compensation insurance for every single individual that works for them. The costs for this insurance is relative to the risk of the particular work being done.  As a general example, a secretary would be at much lower risk than the employee who uses power tools.
For such a a blue collar worker, the hirer might be required to pay a dollar in workers’ comp premium for every single dollar in payroll. Therefore, it obviously costs the honest firm around two times the amount to send such a worker up on the roof than the paycheck might suggest. In contrast, however, to get workers’ comp coverage for a secretary in the same
 firm, he or she might have to add only one cent in workers’ comp costs for every dollar.
On the other hand, the insurance firm, who bases their premiums on the total number of accidents for all the workers in that particular field or industry, has been swindled out of some 99 cents that could have otherwise gone towards covering the costs of accidents.
So the honest firms will eventually get hit with a further rate increase to make up for the less than honest ones, unfortunately.
By the way if you are looking for an outstanding San Francisco Personal Injury Lawyer then I highly recommend Steven Brady, who is one of the best.
A San Francisco based insurance agent who heads a confederation of home and small-business owners and is involved in the anti-fraud campaign mentioned earlier, stated that officials have come to percieve that this particular kind of fraud is running amok. Yet he also stated that he did not fully understand how rates could really be 8 times bigger,
although any increase was too much and cannot be tolerated.

August 18, 2007
Filed under: Workers Compensation — reformingworkerscomp @ 7:27 am Edit This
I just got back from San Diego to see the attorney: Insurance firms are less liable for some specific kinds of workers’ compensation claims following
 a policy change that was approved by the state Department of Banking and Insurance.
The change in question, which occured on July first, permits insurance firms to reduce their coverage as well as to
 limit liability in those cases where an employer’s specific actions may have contributed to the accident.
All in all, Employers will be affected in 2 different waysaccording to the particular banking dept. which made this ruling.
For one thing, they will be more exposed to claims, since they will not have the coverage for some kinds of accidents. As a quick aside if you require a top San Diego divorce attorney then I do suggest this particular firm. They are among the best regarding San Diego divorce cases and a top attorney overall. And yet
 the policy change in question should save them from increase in premiums. Thus it has a downside and an upside as well.
The change was prompted by a Court decision late last year pertaining to a workplace accident and whether or not the workers’
 compensation insurer had to shoulder the whole responsibility for paying the damages
that would result if insurers had to pay compensation for more of the claims.
Therefore the bureau, working with the insurers, edited the policy language somewhat to allow insurers to get around an additional liability, over and above the regular workers’ compensation payments.

The new policy language makes clear that the insurer is not liable for “bodily injury caused or aggravated by an intentional wrong” committed by the employer that is “substantially certain to result in injury.”

June 30, 2007
Filed under: Legal News, Workers Compensation, Regional news — reformingworkerscomp @ 7:18 pm Edit This
In a June 29 story out of the Charleston Post, it was reported that business owners were encouraged when South Carolina’s
Legislature passed a comprehensive workers’ compensation reform and the Governer then signed this bill into law over the past week.
The newspaper went on to say that the act of Reforming workers’ compensation is going to help push the state in the proper direction of growing prosperity for their four million residents, all the while improving their positioning in the global economy.
The bill will end up saving businesses in excess of twebty-four million dollars, which now can be better applied toward such goals as improved effeciency, hiring more help, and offering more comprehensive benefits.
 While many provisions on this bill will benefit all businesses in the state, they particularly will assist small and home-based businesses which are strapped with additional expenses every year and few resources to make their way through the complicated system.
One of the biggest issues with the previous workers’ comp system was the broad, unrestricted discretion given the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission in awarding the benefits. This legislation takes baby steps to restructure the Commission, which should facilitate more consistent and fairer cases for both parties. It is a good start.
It also helps solve some other pressing issues, like imposing toupher penalties for fraud committed by both employers and workers aloke. In addition, several other high profile Court cases which have set unfair precedents will be modified. The legislation in particular absolves trucking firms from the liabilities in accidents involving independent contractors. Thus, a trucking
 firm may not be held responsible for issues involving those individuals with whom they contract but do not specifically employ.

According to news just in from the Orange County, California Business Journal,
businesses are trying to defend themselves as a number of bills which could potentially harm them have made it through an inportant deadline.
Some lobbyists have suggested that these bills may damage employer revenues.
Perhaps the most important are 2 healthcare reform bills by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, a Democrat from LA, and Senate President Don Perata, a Democrat from Oak town. Assembly Bill eight and Senate Bill 48 would mandate employers to provide healthcare for
 workers or else pay 7.5% of payroll to the state for coverage for the uninsured workers in question.
Former Governer Gray Davis signed the bill literally just days prior to his recall. Bu then business groups quickly moved to place a referendum on the ballot, thus overturning it.
However, there is another proposal on the table from the Governator which would basically set the employer fee at some four percent while requiring insurers, hospitals & medical groups to pay their own particular fees.
Debate is expected to increase substantially during the coming weeks, so this should be very interesting.
Legislative leaders Nuñez and Perata also are pushing bills that would increase workers comp. to disabled employees.
However, employers claim that all these bills would roll back the previosu reforms which sliced workers’ compensation premiums by fifty percent for the majority of employers.
Meanwhile Labor-rights organizations, as well as attorneys, state that the reforms in question actually shortchange the legitimately injured or disabled employees. They are hoping to qualify a ballot initiative which would essentially upgrade the access of injured employees
 to their own physicians while at the same time limiting the right of employers to reject treatments outright. Is this going far or is it a reasonable concern?