Tag Archives: Benefits

Counterclaims in Nebraska Workers’ Compensation

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nebraska-supreme-courtEarlier this year, the Nebraska Supreme Court struck down the ability of defendant-employers to file counterclaims in workers’ compensation cases. See Interiano-Lopez v. Tyson Fresh Meats, 294 Neb. 586 (2016).

What does this mean for workers?

The biggest advantage this decision has for workers is the fact that a worker may dismiss a case at any time without prejudice under § 48-177 without having to worry about a counterclaim still hanging out there. In other words, this decision could prevent employers from forcing a trial before plaintiff is ready or if plaintiff wants to wait for trial until after the she or he is done treating.

Another benefit of this recent decision might be a little less obvious. Under Thomas v. Washington Gas Light Co., the U.S. Supreme Court held that a worker may be able to have workers’ compensation coverage in multiple states for the same accident/injury. The reason this is important with respect to counterclaims is that the injured worker now has the ability to dismiss the lawsuit to allow for potentially more-favorable benefits in another state, while still maintaining the option to return to Nebraska jurisdiction at a later date if necessary.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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New Employees Face Higher Risk, Harder Consequences for Work Injuries

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As the holiday season approaches, many people will take on second or holiday jobs. Workers taking on such jobs will be taking on a heightened risk of injury. One academic study showed that temporary employees are two to three times more likely to be injured. An Omaha-based construction company found that 65 percent of lost-time injuries took place in the first 90 days of employment (this link is a downloadable presentation). This blog post will describe some causes of injury and then talk about some particular challenges faced by new employees who are injured.

Slips, trips and falls are the most common cause of work injury. This hazard can be particularly acute during the winter in retail and restaurant jobs because customers will track in snow and other moisture. Strain from lifting is also a common injury. Warehouse work is in high demand over the holiday season, and one risk particular to such work is the risk of falling pallets or boxes.

One challenge that new employees face when they get hurt is how to calculate their disability benefits. A worker may not have been employed long enough for an employer and/or insurer to accurately determine how much the employee should be paid in benefits after getting hurt. One approach may to be base this benefit rate on pay of similarly situated co-workers. If you believe you are getting shortchanged on benefits because you were a new employee when you were hurt, you should contact a lawyer.

Workers’ compensation is supposed to pay you benefits regardless of your fault in the injury. But fault can still play a role in work-injury claims. If your injury was the fault of someone other than your employer or a co-worker, then you might be able to pursue a negligence case against that party. Unfortunately, some employers have tried to reintroduce fault into the workers’ compensation system, to the detriment of newer employees. Some employers will fire or discipline employees who have preventable or lost-time accidents during the beginning of their employment. In my view, such policies amount to employers almost admitting that they are retaliating against employees who get hurt at work. If you have been disciplined under such a policy, you should contact an attorney.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in employment law, Workers' Compensation, Workplace Safety and tagged , , , , , , .

What Happens If I Get Hurt at My Second Job?

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An estimated 7 million Americans work at least two jobs. As the holidays approach, many people will take on holiday jobs as well. Getting hurt at a second job or a holiday job can also create problems at your full-time or regular job. This post will help you navigate some of those issues:

  1. What benefits are you entitled to when you are hurt at a second or holiday job?Your benefits are limited by the wages you are receiving at your second job. You might be able to increase this amount with tips or other perks, but you cannot be paid for wage loss from your first job. If you do have permanent disability, that will be paid based off of a 40-hour week even if you worked part time.

    Receipt of workers’ compensation benefits assumes that you are an actual employee and not an independent contractor. For most relatively low-wage part-time work, this is a fair assumption. But since I wrote my holiday job post back in 2013, there has been the emergence of ride-hailing companies like Uber and other sharing-economy companies that have blurred the lines between employee and independent contractor. If you get hurt working for one of these companies, you should contact an attorney, as the distinction between an employee and independent contractor is very fact specific.

  2. How does a work injury at a second job affect your benefits at your regular job?

     

    Health insurance

    Assuming your other job’s workers’ compensation insurance company picks up your medical benefits, your health insurance from your regular job would not be affected. But in a disputed case, you may have to use health insurance from your regular job to pay for your workers’ compensation injury at your second job. In that case, you should list workers’ compensation from the company where you were hurt as the primary insurance and your private health insurance as your secondary insurance. Also be aware that if you settle your workers’ compensation claim, you may have to pay back your private health insurance. If you go to trial and win an award of medical benefits, your medical providers should refund the private health insurance and reimburse you for out-of-pocket expenses. In a disputed case, you should contact an attorney not only to get benefits but also to health navigate reimbursement.

    Short-term and long-term disability

    Larger employers will often have short-term and long-term disability policies to help employees make up for lost income. These are a mixed bag. Some won’t let you collect benefits for work injuries, some may allow you to double collect workers’ compensation and disability, while others may require you reduce benefits. These policies often have repayment policies if a workers’ compensation case is settled as well. It is helpful to have a lawyer to help you with this process as well.

  3. How does a work injury at a second job affect your employment at your regular job? 
    Assuming your injury requires you to miss time from work, you can claim the Family and Medical Leave Act, assuming your employer has 50 employees, you have worked there for a year, and you have worked there for at least 1,250 hours over the last year. Assuming your employer has 15 employees, your employer would be required to make some reasonable accommodations for your injury under the Americans with Disabilities Act. You should reach out to a lawyer if either employer requires you to return to work without restrictions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated in final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 that policies that force employee to return to work without restrictions are unlawful. Ironically, if you are hurt at your second job, that employer is probably more likely to return you to work at light duty so that they can avoid or reduce what you are owed in temporary benefits. The new ADA regulations were intended in part to end how work-caused and non-work-caused disabilities are treated.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Why Is My Workers’ Compensation Claim Being Denied?

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Ideally, if you are hurt on the job, workers’ compensation should pay your medical bills and for any lost time because of that injury. If you are hurt bad enough, workers’ compensation should also pay your permanent disability, for future medical care and even for re-training.

In reality, sometimes this doesn’t happen. This post will attempt to explain the reasons why a workers’ compensation claim will be denied or delayed and what injured employees need to do preserve their rights.

  1. Lack of information: In order for a claims administrator or insurance company to pay a claim, they need to determine if it is covered by workers’ compensation. At a minimum, this means that they need some medical records documenting the injury. This can take time. If a doctor has given work restrictions, this means that the claims adjuster needs to contact the employer to find out if those restrictions can be accommodated. Even assuming everyone is being honest and diligent, this process may take a few weeks. The general standard is to give an insurer three to four weeks to investigate a claim. I would advise that injured employees be civil with employers and insurance adjusters. This can be difficult if you are like many Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, but a loss of temper can compromise your case. It’s difficult to be patient, but the fair employers and/or insurers will make up lost time pay and will pay you a reasonable amount of benefits without dispute and without the involvement of a lawyer.
  2. You aggravated an old injury or chronic condition: To be clear, if you make an old injury or chronic condition worse, that is covered by workers’ compensation in Nebraska. However, this may not be understood by a claims person in a state where there is a different standard of causation. This fact is also not widely understood by most employees or managers, which can lead employers to deny coverage and discourage employees from reporting such injuries.
  3. Your injury came on from overuse or repetitive use rather than from a one-time incident:  Arm, hand and even back injuries are very common from repetitive activity. These symptoms usually come on over time, and employees can’t pinpoint an exact injury date to employers or doctors. Under Nebraska law, such injuries are covered by workers’ compensation. But again an unscrupulous insurer and/or employer can use these facts to argue to you that your injury is not covered by workers’ compensation.
  4. You delayed seeking medical treatment: Delaying going to the doctor can hurt your workers’ compensation case, because it raises the suspicion that you hurt yourself outside of work. The delay doesn’t even need to be all that long. It’s a red flag if you claim you were hurt on a Friday then seek treatment on a Monday. There are all sorts of legitimate reasons for some delay, such as the inability to make an appointment, wrongfully thinking you need to ask permission to see a doctor from your employer, seeking treatment with company nurses first, or even thinking an injury will improve on its own. A lawyer can make those arguments with some success, and you should contact one if this is an issue in your case. But the longer you wait to see a doctor, the more likely it is your claim will be denied.
  5. You didn’t tell your supervisor you were hurt, or you didn’t fill out an accident report: If you are hurt at work, your employer has a duty to report to the state of Nebraska and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that you were hurt. You also have a duty to inform your employer as soon as practicable. Cover yourself, and report the injury. Even if your employer doesn’t have a form or a formal human resources department, send a text or e-mail to your boss telling that person what happened and what kind of injuries you have.
  6. You initially denied you had a work injury: Some employers will tell you that they will take care of the injury themselves and not turn it in to workers’ compensation. In some cases, employees are afraid to turn in injuries. In other cases, an employee has been led to believe that an injury isn’t covered because of the factors listed in points 2-5, so that worker turns the claim over to private insurance. The problem with this outcome is that for a serious injury you can get stuck with paying a lot of money out of pocket, which can be almost impossible to pay if you aren’t working and not receiving workers’ compensation benefits. Even worse, some health insurers will reverse payment if they get an indication your bills should have been covered by workers’ compensation. Some companies have private disability policies that might allow you to collect some benefits, but those policies will also deny benefits if they have some indication that there was a workers’ compensation claim.If you are in this situation, you need a lawyer for your workers’ compensation claim. You also need a lawyer who knows creative ways to turn the tables on employers and insurers who completely deny benefits to their employees. Some of my most professionally satisfying cases have come from turning the tables on employers who, for lack of a better word, jack around employees who make some mistakes in how they handled their workers’ compensation claims.
    Even if you have done several things to hurt your workers’ compensation claim, a good lawyer can take actions to get justice on your claim.
  7. Your employer didn’t fill out an accident report or filled it out wrong: Not all denials or delays are due to mistakes made by employees. Employers drop the ball as well. That’s why you want to cover yourself with your own written report as well as see a doctor as soon as you can and be sure to tell that doctor how you were hurt.
  8. You were treated by a physician assistant or nurse practitioner:  Some insurers and/or employers believe that physician assistants and nurse practitioners cannot testify in a workers’ compensation case in Nebraska. I strongly disagree, but the issue has never been definitively decided by an appellate court. An aggressive employer and/or insurer will use this as an excuse to not pay benefits. A lawyer can help fix this issue by asking a supervising physician or D.O. to give an opinion in your case.
  9. You went to see your own doctor rather than the employers’ doctor: Unless your employer gives you notice AFTER your work injury, you have the right to be treated by your doctor. You don’t have to see the doctor at the clinic where your employer sends you to be drug tested after an injury.
    I despise few phrases more than “workers’ compensation doctor.” Any doctor can treat you for a workers’ compensation injury. A “workers’ compensation doctor” or an “occupational medicine doctor” is just a doctor who is happy to fill out the extra paper work required in a workers’ compensation claim. Usually these doctors work hand in glove with employers and insurers. Sometimes this works out for employees, but many times it doesn’t. Unscrupulous or unknowledgeable insurers and/or employers will deny care to employees who pick their own doctors. Sometimes employers will take action against employees as well. In cases like this, you need a workers’ compensation and employment lawyer.
  10. Your employer blames you for your injury: Unless you were intoxicated when you were injured, the issue of fault is irrelevant in a workers’ compensation claim. If your employer is denying your claim based on you being at fault, you need a lawyer for your workers’ compensation claim and one that can evaluate a potential employment-law claim.
  11. You are being denied benefits because you were fired or quit:  Like the issue of fault for your injury, the fact you were fired or quit post-accident should have little impact on your workers’ compensation claim, but you should contact a lawyer who can advise you on workers’ compensation and employment law.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Can I Collect Unemployment and Workers’ Compensation Benefits at the Same Time?

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In Nebraska, an injured worker who is laid off, fired or leaves a job for good cause can collect unemployment benefits and still receive Temporary Partial Disability (TPD) benefits and Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) benefits from the workers’ compensation insurance company. The Nebraska Labor Department unemployment law does not allow a worker to receive unemployment during the same week the person is paid Temporary Total Disability (TTD) workers’ compensation payments.

To receive unemployment benefits, the injured worker must be ready, willing and able to work.  As long as injured worker is ready, willing and able to work within one’s own restrictions, that worker can receive unemployment benefits during the same week that they are entitled to TPD and PPD benefits. 

If a person is totally unable to work and getting TTD benefits, that person cannot receive unemployment benefits since they, by definition, are not ready, willing and able to work.

Under the workers’ compensation laws, it is also important to remember that compensation benefits cannot be offset with what is paid under the unemployment benefits. For guidance, please refer to Nebraska Statute 48-130 that supports this rule of law.

If you have been laid off or terminated, you are still entitled to workers’ compensation benefits in the above situations.

If you have any questions, call us for a free consultation.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Workers’ Compensation and Child Support in Nebraska

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Doing_the_best_she_canWhat happens when you are injured at work, but you also pay child support? In Nebraska, generally, there cannot be liens against workers’ compensation benefits. However, Nebraska Revised Statute 48-149 provides for one of those rare instances where a lien may be instituted against workers’ compensation benefits for child support orders. In other words, if you have a Nebraska child support order, it is likely that any child support that is due may be garnished from your workers’ compensation benefit checks or from a workers’ compensation settlement.

If there is an out-of-state child support order, however, the order must first be transferred to the Nebraska courts or to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services before a child support order may attach as a lien to Nebraska workers’ compensation benefits. In order to do that, there are certain procedures that must be followed for a proper transfer of a child support order to Nebraska courts. Often, these procedures are not followed by other states and therefore, there is not be a proper lien against Nebraska workers’ compensation benefits to be garnished. If the out-of-state child support order was properly transferred though, the order will be treated the same as a Nebraska child support order, and workers’ compensation benefits may be garnished to pay said child support.

Regardless of where a child support order is located, it is absolutely imperative that you inform your lawyer about any child support that you owe so your lawyer is able to help you navigate through your workers’ compensation claim and child support concerns.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Workplace Flexibility: Good For You and Your Employees

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Today’s post was shared by the U.S. Labor Department and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

Even though National Work and Families Month was in October, I think this topic is a good discussion to encourage employers and business owners to consider anytime during the year. As we have discussed in the past, not everyone has the luxury of benefits at their jobs. But benefits can be an extremely important part of the overall compensation package, including paid sick leave and workplace flexibility. As is evidenced below, employers can also reap great benefits from providing such flexibility, especially when it comes to increased worker loyalty and productivity. That includes offering schedules that are concrete for workers so they don’t have to “choose between … job or … family.” In addition, there are definitely benefits of goodwill and there might even be cost savings when a person, regardless of job, stays home when sick, instead of passing the illness around the workplace and other workers taking that illness home to loved ones. Another example is for anyone who drives for work. A sickness on the road and working while sick could very quickly become an employer’s safety issue that could endanger both the employee and the general public, if being forced to work led to an accident.

A March 2014 article by Bryce Covert discusses the reality of what paid sick leave (and I would argue workplace flexibility) did in one state, in addition to humanizing service-sector workers and spreading caregiver tasks out over more family members. Researchers Eileen Appelbaum and Ruth Milkman from the Center for Economic and Policy Research surveyed Connecticut employers and “they found that ‘everything they were worried about, that workers would take all the time available, employees would abuse it, did not happen,’ she said.”

“Only 11 percent of Connecticut’s businesses had costs increase by 3 percent or more, their study found, while about two-thirds said there was either no cost or a small one. The vast majority said there were no cases of abuse. In fact, while the law provides workers with five paid sick days a year, on average they use just four. Half of them used three days or fewer, and a third didn’t take any at all. ‘It’s not that you give workers a paid sick day and they run out and use every single one,’ Appelbaum noted. ‘From the point of view of employees, these paid sick days are a form of insurance,’ and workers hold on to them in case they need them in the future.”

Because as you should read below, regardless of the size or type of business, in the long run, workplace flexibility can be very good for business.

 

Kimmich-1024x768Small business owners know that things don’t always go as planned, and the same is true for their employees. Even the family responsibilities that we can plan for sometimes require a balancing act: nearly two-thirds of American women with a 1-year-old child are in the labor force, and approximately 16.8 million adults over 55 years of age provide unpaid care for elderly loved ones. That’s why workplace flexibility policies that allow employees to balance the demands of work and home are vitally important − especially paid sick days, paid parental leave and flexible scheduling.

These policies also give employers a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining top talent, increase employee creativity, increase productivity, increase profitability, and boost employee morale.

Many large companies have made headlines when offering workplace flexibility policies (Netflix, Google and Microsoft to name a few), but flexible workplace policies are good for small businesses, too.

During National Work and Families Month, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Labor Department are supporting businesses’ efforts to make the country’s workplaces more fair and family-friendly by creating a Workplace Flexibility Toolkit. It’s full of helpful tips and ideas to help small businesses implement smart workplace flexibility policies.

Small businesses all over the country already are reaping the benefits of such policies:

“Years ago my husband, John, and I decided to offer…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in employment law, Reforms, U.S. Department of Labor, worker rights, Working from Home and tagged , , , , , .

States with Opt-Out Workers’ Comp System are Strict on Injured Workers

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Dallas attorney Bill Minick (Photo credit Dylan Hollingsworth for ProPublica)

Today’s post was written by guest author Hayes Jernigan, from The Jernigan Law Firm in North Carolina. In 2015, ProPublica and NPR have done a great service to the public by making in-depth reports on workers’ compensation systems in many states. Their most recent focus was looking at the opt out systems implemented Texas and Oklahoma. These similar systems essentially strip workers of the protections that workers’ compensation gives, stacking the deck dramatically toward employers and their insurance companies.

Fortunately, Nebraska is not an opt out state yet. But many Nebraska employers, especially those who are self-insured for the purposes of workers’ compensation, have adopted many tactics from opt out states. I think the most prevalent tactic is hoodwinking employees into filing for short- or long-term disability when an injury should be covered by workers’ compensation. Employees often unknowingly agree to this in situations where the work duties aggravated an old injury or pre-existing condition or if there is some minor delay or defect in reporting the injury. If you sign up for private disability insurance, you are often asked to deny that your disability is work related. That can doom any possible workers’ compensation claim in the future. If you are being asked to sign up for long-term or short-term disability for a medical condition that may have been caused by work injury, contact a workers’ compensation attorney.

Texas and Oklahoma have both adopted an “opt-out” system for Workers’ Compensation. ProPublica along with NPR recently published an in-depth look at the results in these two states. Under this system, employers can opt-out of state mandated workers’ compensation insurance by creating their own policy for injured workers. These employer-written policies give employers 100% control over the terms, the benefits, and even settlements.

Specifically, ProPublica and NPR found that these employer-created policies generally have strict 24-hour reporting requirements or even require an injury to be reported by the end of a shift. This means, if an employee does not report their injury within their shift, or within 24 hours, they are prevented from bringing a claim at all. Period. End of discussion. Employers can also dictate how much benefits will be paid and some employers have capped death benefits for employees who are killed at work at $250,000. Whereas under the State Workers’ Compensation system, if a deceased worker leaves behind minor children, they will continue to receive benefits until they turn 18 (which could easily end up being well over $250,000 when you factor in lost wages until the worker would have been 65). This is potentially detrimental to a young widow or widower who is left with very young children.

This morning we tweeted a recent ABC news article that a worker was killed when he fell at a construction site in Charlotte. I’d hate to think that his or her family would be limited to recovering only $250,000 in the event the worker left behind dependent family members and young children. Money can’t begin to replace someone who is lost to us too early from an accident at work, but $250,000 would hardly cover a lifetime of income that the family will lose, especially if young children are left behind.

 

To read more on how the Opt-Out system is affecting injured workers in Texas and Oklahoma, go to: ProPublica: Inside Corporate America’s Campaign to Ditch Workers’ Comp.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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