Here is some of the latest California legal news. There are many who believe that in the event of a fatal crash occurring, the driver that is responsible for the accident should be forced to under-go a mandatory blood test for alcohol and drugs, to determine if the driver was under the influence at the time of the accident. However, along with four (4) other states, there are those who feel this is an unreasonable expectation. Santa Clara Sheriff’s Deputy James Council was involved in an unfortunate fatal accident in Cupertino that occurred last Sunday when the Deputy claims he fell asleep at the wheel, causing him to run over the cyclists that resulted in their death. By the way, if you happen to reside in the greater Los Angeles and/or Southern California area in general and you need a wonderful accident attorney in the area of los angeles county specifically then by all means please take a look at the brilliant Law Offices of Robert Mansell. All in all, they are among the best in their field. So if you require an Los Angeles accident attorney or perhaps a group of attorneys even. Or perhaps a burn victim, spinal cord, traumatic brain or personal injury attorney in the same jurisdiction or in the nearby jurisdictions such as Torrance, Long Beach, Palos Verdes, Marina Del Ray, West Covina and similar localities in the greater Los Angeles region, then you should do yourself a great big favor and give Robert mansell and his associates a ring. Currently there are no laws requiring a person who is involved in a fatal crash to submit to blood alcohol and drug tests. Responding officers to accidents have the ability in deciding whether they have probable cause in believing the operator of the vehicle is under the influence. Such as signs that include slurred speech, unsteadiness, bloodshot eyes, or being able to smell alcohol. Since the California Highway Patrol did not administer a drug and alcohol test to Council, this would indicate that he didn’t exhibit the signs of being under the influence.
Filed under: Workers Compensation, Legal News, Regional news, Economic News, Labor Statistics, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 5:18 am Edit This
According to an article by Tom Searls of the Sunday Gazette, of Chicago both
Legislative leaders and West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin are slowly moving towards a battle involving the right way to regulate workers’ compensation insurance benefits in the state.
Lawmakers have clearly stated that they wish, at an absolute minimum, to be informed of any modifications in workers’ compensation rules, like earlier moves to cut off widows’ benefits at the age of their late husband’s retirement, for example. Meanwhile, in
minimum wage news, the wages of salaried workers will go up by some fifty cents to $8 per hour on the first of January, in the state of California,
making workers there the 2nd highest paid earners overall in the nation, with Massachusetts being the other such state. If you happen to need a Chicago personal injury attorney then I can suggest this firm.
The Massachusetts minimum wage also will reach $8 an hour on the first, according to the U.S. Dept of Labor.
The state of Washington, which automatically adjusts their minimum wage every year to keep up with inflation, will have the highest overall at $8.07 an hour.
The California increase is part of a 2-step adjustment approved by lawmakers in 2006. The wage jumped from $6.75 to $7.50 last Jan. 1.
The Governor tends to think that if lawmakers interfere with the various rules and regulations for workers’ compensation, it may in fact damage the state’s plan to eventually privatize it.
Insurance companies might then falsely assume that as a move to bring the program back under government control, he was quoted as stating.
BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Company., which was formed from the Workers’ Compensation division about 2 years ago, at this time is the only such firm selling workers’ compensation insurance in the state.
However, this will change on the first of July when the state opens workers’ comp to private firms across the whole country in an effort to maximise market effeciency.
October 15, 2007
America Online’s Internet Division to Cut 2,000 Jobs
Filed under: Economic News, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 11:58 pm Edit This
I thought that the following article had a relevent economic and employment perspective as I just returned from Georgia:
According to a report today by the highly respected Bloomber Finacial News network,
the Time Warner Corporation, which just happens to be the globe’s largest media firm,
will cut some two thousand positions over at America Online. This is twenty percent of their overall
workforce so this is obviously a considerable reduction overall. According to the report,
the reason for these drastic measures is due to substantial subscriber defections which have
led to a nearly forty percentage reduction in sales over the previous recorded quarter.
This latest round of job cuts will reduce the web unit’s staff to about eight thousand, which is down from about some
eighteen positions in 2001, when the firm purchased New-York based Time Warner for $124 billion dollars and change. Sometimes it can be good to find aquality Church Fundraiser in Georgia. As an aside this firm supplies a top quality church fundraisers service in the state of Georgia.
Boy, you talk about some serious downsizing going on here. To be honest though I sort of saw this coming some time ago. I saw the customer
service really slipping at this firm. Some of my own friends were complaining that they were having a difficult time nvigating on the world wide web
from America Online and also that it was almost impossible to uninstall the software. I do not know if these things were actually true because I never used them myself
but I felt something was going wrong there, unfortunately. In any case, for whatever reasons the
various unfavorable circumstances led to some one hundred billion dollars or so in losses (not exactly chump change) and a more than sixty percent drop in Time Warner’s stock as
their customers rapidly jettisoned their dial-up internet access. I suppose that times had simply changed.
This is all sort of sad to me because America Online were Internet pioneer’s created back in 1985.
September 21, 2007
Filed under: Economic News, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 6:35 pm Edit This
According to the Oregon-based newspaper ‘The Building Team Forecast’,
Employment Growth in the country has been Decelerating for over twelve months, unfortunately.
In fact, the latest month (8/07) U.S. employment number (minus four thousand jobs) sent major ripples waves throughout the entire American economy.
According to the report in question, this was actually the first month-to-month decline in some 4 years, dating back to August of 2003. Much of the responsibility for this
drop has been laid on the steps of the now infamous subprime mortgage fiasco and the aftereffects of reduced business as well as consumer confidence in general.
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All in all, the United States Year-over-year Job Growth was +1.2% as of August; Down from it’s Peak, according to the September 20 report by Alex Carrick.
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There was some reason for optimism in the gloomy news, however.
The Toronto, Canada Stock Exchange’s primary index upticked higher yesterday after lower-than-expected U.S. jobless claims emboldened their investors and increased good feelings regarding the world’s largest economy.
It should be very interesting to see what happens in the job markets next month as the latest news is sure to send additional ripples throughout the global economy as whole.
August 30, 2007
Filed under: Economic News, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 1:20 am Edit This
According to the highly respected Bloomberg financial news network,
consumer confidence has dropped recently and
unemployment spiked last month to 4.6 percent from 4.5 percent previously. Employment growth slowed to about ninety thousand last month from 126,000 the previous month,
down from last year’s average of about 189,000 per month, unfortunatelt. In addition to this, growth in hourly earnings slowed to 3.9 percent las month as well.
What is causing the slow job growth rate and other negative economic statistics such as an increase in workers comp claims?
Well according to Bloomberg, a true authority on the subject, the worst housing recession in some sixteen years appeares to be badly reducing consumer confidence and therefore crucial spending as well as effecting employment numbers.
For example, sales of previously owned houses fell last month to the very lowest level in nearly 5 years! Furthermore, the glut of unsold houses rose to a sixteen year high
from a year earlier, down from a 9 year high of 4.3 percent in December 2006, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday.
In addition, The credit crunch appears to be effecting employment numbers as well. For instance, Accredited Home Lenders Holding Company just last week stated that it would close over fifty percent of their operations and let go about sixteen hundred individuals,
sadly enouph. Just before that occured, SunTrust Banks Incorporated stated that it was goping to cut more than two thousand employees in 2007 as profit from retail & commercial banking alike falls.
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.
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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.”
August 12, 2007
Filed under: Economic News, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 3:04 am Edit This
According to the Reuters online news network,
the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers for the month of July showed that some sixty-six percent of
all consumers expect the unemployment rate to remain unchanged (or possibly decline), while another thirty
three percent of them thought that the jobless rate would rise in the coming year.
This information is relevent since Consumers’ employment expectations are a fairly reliable measure of worry
regarding future job and wage prospects, according to expert Richard Curtin of the Univ. of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.
He was quaoted as saying that “”Employment and wage growth rate are the leading factors that will ensure the continued expansion of consumer spending,”
He also stated that this is due to the fact that Consumer spending has been one of the top drivers of the American economic engine.
There are also concerns that the chaos currently happening in the housing market may result in an unfortunate slowdown of GDP growth.
Furthermore, Curtin was quoted as saying that non-farm employment has grown by an average of some 136 positions per month up to this point this year.
The unemployment rate is at 4.6 percent right now.
July 16, 2007
California legal News
Filed under: Legal News, Regional news — reformingworkerscomp @ 9:16 pm Edit This
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July 5, 2007
reformingworkerscomp @ 6:58 pm Edit This
According to news report from the Associated Press and also reported in an article by Forbes magazine, Florida’s Workers’ Compensation rates are due to be cut.
Small business owners in this state might still be struggling to cope with high property insurance premiums, but another major business expense will go down next year: workers’ compensation assessment rates are set to be cut by some fisty percent.
This rate cut could possibly result in nearly twenty million dollars in savings that can be passed on to state employers as lower premiums for workers’ comp insurance. Apparently a vibrant local economy, and touph efforts to curb workers’ compensation fraud are helping to make fund strong enough to further reduce these particular rates.
In addition, business owners who don’t comply with workers’ comp laws now are penalized with far steeper fines than they did just several years ago. This has also added to the fund and made more money available.
This is good news for a state with a large economy, comparitively speaking.
Insurance companies pay into the fund to pay for the state office that administers and enforces workers’ compensation programs.
Since a few years ago, workers’ comp rates have dropped about some forty percent altogether…… Regulatory officials state that since a state law changed in 2003, the frequency of injured workers’ claims has in fact sharply declined, primarily due to fewer cases of fraud, mismanagement and abuse of the system in general.
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