Tag Archives: first responders

Mental health care provider shortage hits injured workers in rural Nebraska particularly hard

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The shortage of mental-health care providers in Nebraska makes it harder for rural residents to get prompt care for mental injuries on the job; harder to prove cases for mental injury at work

Nebraska has a shortage of mental-health practitioners that is particularity serious in rural areas. This shortage of mental health providers delays and impairs the recovery of injured workers in Nebraska who suffer a mental injury as a result of physical injury or a mental injury on the job. It also makes these claims harder to prosecute.

Quick Review: Who gets mental injury benefits in Nebraska

Unless you are a first responder as defined by Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-101.1, an injured worker can only be covered for a mental injury if it is related to a physical injury. This can happen with any kind of injury, but in my experience it is most common with head injuries.

First responders in Nebraska, can collect for purely mental or “mental-mental” injuries. The definition of first responder has been generally expanded from police and firefighters to include corrections officers and mental health technicians in our state mental hospitals.

Volunteer firefighters are also eligible for workers’ compensation benefits including mental-mental benefits.

How the lack of mental health care providers effects a workers’ compensation claim

I believe the first drawback for injured workers is delayed treatment. Delayed treatment can lead to more severe permanent injuries

Maybe when everything goes smoothly in a workers’ compensation case, which usually isn’t happening if an injured worker is calling a lawyer, a delay in treatment can lead to longer payment of temporary total disability benefits.

But even assuming those temporary benefits are fair, workers’ compensation benefits aren’t designed to fully compensate employees for work injuries. But workers give up full payment for the promise of prompt payment of benefits. But if mental health practitioners aren’t available, injured workers will not get prompt medical treatment for a mental injury.

The lack of mental health providers in rural areas deprives rural workers a substantial part of the so-called grand bargain of workers’ compensation – prompt payment of defined benefits for work injuries.

Another element of the grand bargain are less formal rules of evidence and procedure that should make it easier to prove cases for injured workers. But again, the lack of mental health providers in rural areas makes it harder for rural workers to take advantage of that aspect of the grand bargain as well.

But even if mental-health practitioners are available, they may not qualify as expert witnesses under Nebraska workers’ compensation law.

Many mental health treaters aren’t qualified to testify by report

In Nebraska only a psychologist or a medical doctor is qualified to testify to submit a written report about a mental injury in a workers’ compensation case. The inability of physicians’ assistants or nurse practitioners to testify by report is already a problem for Nebraska residents in more remote areas of the state. The same issues would apply to counselor who isn’t a psychologist who treats an injured worker for a mental injury.

But while the small town nurse practitioner and counselor who treat mental work injuries don’t qualify as so-called Rule 10 experts in the Nebraska workers’ compensation court, the hired gun MDs and PhDs in Lincoln, Omaha or Denver who insurers and claims administrators send rural workers to do qualify as Rule 10 experts.

Lawyers for injured workers can sometimes fix these issues. Sometimes MDs or psychologists will endorse the findings of counselors. Other times a plaintiff’s lawyer can arrange for a medical examination. But neither of those approaches is fool-proof when it comes to litigation. But even when those tactics work in a case, they often don’t address the problem that an employee is not receiving prompt mental health treatment when it is needed.

Other solutions?

A lawyer would be free to call a counselor to testify live at a workers’ compensation trial, but that depends on the counselor’s willingness to cooperate in litigation. (Sure, you can subpoena a witness, but that’s not a great option.)

Congress looks likely to pass increased funding for mental-health in response to publicized mass-shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo. Hopefully the funding is adequate to help address the mental-health care provider shortage in Nebraska.

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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How do mental injury claims for first responders work?

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This is a good story about a paramedic in Nebraska who struggled to obtain workers’ compensation benefits for a mental injury he sustained while on the job.

This firm is proud of the fact that we have compensable mental injury claims for first responders in Nebraska. Our firm helped draft legislation which amended Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-101.01 to provide workers’ compensation benefits for mental claims without the need for an accompanying physical injury. In the article linked above, prior to 2010, the injured paramedic would not have been entitled to any workers’ compensation benefits for a strictly mental claim (without physical injury), including no treatment or counseling.

This is good to keep in mind during the current flooding throughout Nebraska: where there is potential for volunteer firefighters and first responders to get injured. Injured volunteer firefighters are also covered under the Workers’ Compensation Act: including mental claims for those volunteer firefighters.

Fortunately, we do have coverage for mental claims in Nebraska, but unfortunately not every employee is covered for only mental (called mental-mental) claims without a physical injury. Other lawyers at this firm have speculated that this is strictly a political decision.

Although mental-mental claims are covered in Nebraska, what kind of benefits are employees entitled to, who suffer from mental injuries? The benefits for mental injuries are the same for any physical injuries. The injured employee is potentially entitled to: 1. Medical Treatment; 2. Temporary Disability benefits while off of work; 3. Permanent Disability benefits; and 4. Vocational Rehabilitation. n the article, the injured paramedic was seeking payment of treatment for his mental injuries: including treatment that was specialized for mental injuries suffered by paramedics. The paramedic was also fighting for temporary disability payments while he was off work because of the injury.

One of the main issues for the mental claim discussed in the article, hinged on what kind of treatment was reasonable and necessary as a result of the work injury. Specifically, the City of Lincoln argued that a service dog for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was not reasonable and necessary care.  While the paramedic, and his therapist, insisted that the service dog was necessary care as a result of the accident. The questions for reasonable and necessary treatment is whether the treatment is required by the nature of the injury to relieve pain or promote and hasten the employee’s restoration to health and employment.

The article concludes with a somewhat happy ending, despite the circumstances. However, without workers’ compensation benefits for mental injuries, this story could have turned out much worse. Who knows what would have happened to the injured paramedic without the mental treatment he so obviously needed? Fortunately, we’ll never know. Now, Nebraska just needs to extend those mental injury benefits to all employees in all types of employment.

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 are mental-mental benefits generally limited to first responders?

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Convenience store clerks are often exposed to violence. But in order for them to be compensated for work -related mental trauma, they generally need to have a physical injury.

The question of why coverage of so-called “mental-mental” injuries, or work injuries that do not involve a physical injury, is generally limited to first responders is a question that is increasingly vexing attorneys for injured workers and commentators on workers compensation — and workers.

The answer boils down to politics.

From a logical and moral point of view there is no reason why a convenience store clerk and a police officer shouldn’t be able to collect workers’ compensation for purely mental injuries from exposure to violent crime. 

Legally that moral and logical sentiment is often expressed as an argument that such distinctions violate equal protection under state and federal constitutions. Advocates for injured workers have had some success in striking down so-called workers compensation reforms on equal protection grounds.

But while equal protection arguments can be useful in restoring rights to workers compensation, they are less helpful in creating new rights such as compensation for mental injuries. When addressing whether a law is constitutional, appellate courts usually decide first on what level of scrutiny to apply. The less stringent the scrutiny, the more likely the court will find the law to be constitutional.

Health and safety laws like workers compensation are generally afforded rational basis scrutiny by appellate courts. That means courts will generally uphold the constitutionality of those laws. That deferential level of scrutiny emerged out of the New Deal era as a way to uphold the constitutionality of laws relating to social welfare. But in the modern era rational basis scrutiny is often used to argue that the protections of laws like workers compensation shouldn’t be expanded by courts in a way not intended by a legislature.

In Nebraska it was the legislature that created compensation for mental-mental injuries for first responders and expanded that protection to prison guards and Department of Health and Human Services employees in contact with high risk indviduals. So ultimately providing protection for purely mental injuries to all workers — not just first responders — will be a political issue.

 

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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It’s Complicated: Volunteer First Responders Generally Covered for Workers’ Compensation, with Exceptions

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On a recent Monday, an anhydrous ammonia pipeline leaked near Tekamah in rural northeast Nebraska, leading to one fatality. When such accidents in happen in rural Nebraska, the first responders are usually volunteers.

Nebraska has extended workers’ compensation protections to volunteer firefighters and EMTs by statute. Volunteer first responders also have the same coverage for mental-mental injuries that other first responders have. Even though volunteer firefighters are not usually paid a wage, they can collect disability benefits based on the higher amount of two-thirds their regular wage or the state maximum benefit rate. In 2016, the maximum workers’ compensation rate was $785 per week.

Unfortunately, Nebraska’s volunteer first responders also share the same exclusions from workers’ compensation as professional first responders. Foremost among these exclusions is the exclusion for occupational diseases that Brody Ockander wrote about here last month. In short, if an occupational disease manifests itself after a volunteer first responder retires for reasons not related to the occupational disease, the worker or the worker’s survivors could be excluded from receiving workers’ compensation indemnity benefits.

This exclusion is troublesome because of the regularity that volunteer first responders have to respond to chemical explosions and leaks. These chemicals cause symptoms that might not manifest for years. Last week, in addition to the chemical leak in Tekamah, Nebraska, there was a chemical spill at a grain processing plant in rural Atchison, Kansas, that led to 125 people being treated for chemical inhalation. Nebraska has had fertilizer plant explosions in 2012 and in 2014.

Fertilizer plant explosions are not uncommon in rural America. In 2013, a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, killed 12 first responders and wounded 200 in a town of 2,800. In addition to physical injuries, such devastation can also lead to mental injuries, which is in part why Nebraska expanded so-called “mental-mental” benefits to first responders. However, mental injuries like chemical exposure injuries may have delayed symptoms. I would encourage the Nebraska Legislature to amend court decisions on occupational diseases that would exclude the injuries of volunteer first responders.

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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How First Responders Would Be Treated if 9/11 Happened in Nebraska

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Sept. 11 was tragic for the victims who died at ground zero after the attacks on the World Trade Center. But, the lasting effects of the dust and particulates that filled the air after the collapse of the towers have caused ongoing health issues for numerous other victims: first responders who were not killed in the initial collapse of the buildings.

Fortunately, the federal government came to the aid of these first responders by enacting the James Zadroga Act, which provides free testing and treatment for first responders of the 9/11 attacks. However, had this act not been enacted, how would these workers, who have developed health problems from working at ground zero, have been treated under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act?

First, the ailments developed by the first responders would be treated as occupational diseases under Nebraska law. If the disease or ailment of the first responder is shown to be a result of the exposure while working at ground zero, the treatment and indemnity would be covered like any other Nebraska Workers’ Compensation claim.

If the first responder died as a result of the occupational disease, under Nebraska law, the surviving spouse would be entitled to death benefits under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act.

The biggest gap in workers’ compensation coverage under Nebraska law for occupational diseases occurs when the injured worker (or in this case, the first responder) does not develop symptoms or the disease until later in life. In a situation like that, if the occupational disease first manifests (or becomes an injury) after the injured worker has retired for unrelated reasons, the injured worker would be left without indemnity benefits. In other words, the injured worker could get no workers’ compensation money if he or she was retired when the disease showed up. Further, if the injured worker dies as a result of the occupational disease, but is retired at the time the disease becomes an injury, his or her surviving spouse would not be entitled to any money either.  See Olivotto v. DeMarco Bros. Co., 273 Neb. 672 (2007): the widow whose husband died from asbestos exposure was not entitled to indemnity because her husband had been retired for 23 years when mesothelioma manifested.

Thus, if 9/11 happened in Nebraska, first responders who develop an occupational disease later in life might not be fully covered under workers’ compensation laws without some sort further government intervention like the James Zadroga Act.

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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First Responders, Retaliation and Labor Law

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First responders and correctional employees aren’t immune from retaliation from their employers when they turn in work injuries for the unique hazards that they face. However, most first responders, law enforcement and corrections employees have some additional job protections against retaliation. This post is meant to give first responders, law enforcement and corrections employees a basic overview of the job protections they have as union and public sector employees. Those rights can be summed up in three words: Weingarten, Garrity and Loudermill.

Weingarten Rights

Weingarten rights are named after the Supreme Court decision that holds that union members have a right to have a union official present in a disciplinary meeting with supervisors or a meeting that could lead to discipline. Though Weingarten doesn’t apply to public sector unions, most public sector unions, including NAPE/AFSCME in Nebraska, make Weingarten rights part of their collective bargaining agreement.

Weingarten rights can be trampled on when aggressive employers claim they just want to talk to employees rather than subject employees to the third degree. This can be especially prevalent in corrections and law enforcement where supervisors are trained in interrogation techniques.

If you have been subject to an interrogation like this, you need to let your union representative know right away.

Garrity Rights

Garrity rights give public sector employees, regardless of whether they are in a union or not, the right to not incriminate themselves in an investigation that could lead to discipline. Employers will give a Garrity warning similar to a Miranda-type warning. In my experience, Garrity rights can be a bit dubious. Employee misconduct that would justify termination doesn’t always rise to the level of anything remotely illegal. This is especially true if an employer is trying to manufacture evidence to retaliate against a worker. But under Garrity, an employee can be terminated for refusing to answer questions. So employees may feel compelled to answer hours of questions from trained law enforcement officials for alleged misconduct that, even if true, would not rise to anything illegal. This can be a dangerous proposition because such questioning may create the appearance of dishonesty on the part of the employee. Especially in the context of law enforcement or corrections, dishonesty can be a factor that allows an employer to skip the normal progressive disciplinary procedures.

Again, employees should reach out to their union representative if they are faced with this situation.

Loudermill Rights

Loudermill rights compel public employers to give some explanation of why they are terminating an employee and give the employee some opportunity to explain why she or he should not be terminated. (7) Loudermill applies to all government employees, not just union employees. Though Loudermill gives additional protections to what typical at-will employees have, in substance, Loudermill doesn’t afford a lot of protections. In many cases, the decision to terminate has already been made, and feedback from an employee may harm the employee’s chances of winning at a personnel board, arbitration or a wrongful-termination case.

Again, employees should be reaching out to their union representative if they are subject to what is called a Loudermill hearing.

Personnel Board and Arbitration Hearings

Government employees can usually appeal terminations to a personnel board, such as the Nebraska State Personnel Board, or have a termination heard by an arbitrator if the worker is represented by a private union. These hearings are easier for employees to win than wrongful termination cases because generally the employer has the burden to show there was just cause to terminate the employee. In civil court, the employee has the burden of proof that the termination was unlawful. Those hearings can also generate evidence that can be helpful in wrongful termination cases. In many cases, the union will pick up the cost of a personnel board hearing or arbitration.

This post has repeatedly mentioned the importance of involving a union representative and the benefits to employees of a union contract. Nebraska is what is called a “right-to-work state,” which means that employees covered under a union contract cannot be forced to pay union dues. However, if workers do not pay dues, unions may not have the resources needed to fight for their members. The opinion of this firm is that unions in Nebraska, like NAPE/AFSCME, do a good job of fighting for their members, so we would encourage public employees in Nebraska to pay their union dues.

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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9-11: 15 Years Remembered

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What have we learned, and what is the progress we have made toward helping those who help others?

As we remember and celebrate that fateful day, we should continue to celebrate and protect those who risk their lives to help others but who continue to live with the mental and emotional effects when faced with such tragic events encountered in responding to the call to serve.

In Nebraska, we have recognized that with tragic events come the effects to some who just can’t mentally and emotionally get past those events. We have garnered some protections for those first responders whose job it is to serve when emergency matters require it.

First responders have a specific definition as set forth in Nebraska Revised Statute 48-101.01, but essentially if a person serves as an officer, fireman or medical emergency personnel who is called to an emergency response situation, then that person has some workers’ compensation protections.

Personal injury now “includes mental injuries and mental illness unaccompanied by physical injury for an employee who is a first responder” if that person suffers from PTSD, depression, anxiety, mood disorder, panic attacks, reactionary diversion, neurotic disorder, etc.

One must establish “that the employee’s employment conditions causing the mental injury or mental illness were extraordinary and unusual in comparison to the normal conditions of the particular employment” in which they serve.  What is usual is constantly being debated and disputed, but an event causing significant bodily injury or death is not usual in the eyes of the courts.

What is not covered or considered compensable are “mental injuries and mental illness arising out of and in the course of employment unaccompanied by physical injury … if they result from any event or series of events which are incidental to normal employer and employee relations, including, but not limited to, personnel actions by the employer such as disciplinary actions, work evaluations, transfers, promotions, demotions, salary reviews, terminations” or going through the legal process in unrelated matters.

Sometimes employers will retaliate against employees who claim work injuries. Though demotions, write-ups and post-injury terminations aren’t compensable through workers’ compensation, there could be a retaliation or disability discrimination claim. First responders who believe they might be being retaliated against should also reach out to the NAPE/AFSCME, IAFF or FOP representative immediately to help preserve their employment.

We have come a long way in the 15 years since 9-11 in providing protections and workers’ compensation coverage to first responders who make it their job to serve and protect. But what about those who were working and saw and experienced this tragedy who are not first responders? They continue to not be covered for their mental and emotional effects. On this anniversary date, as we remember those who served, we need to continue to fight for everyone who encounters tragic events in the course and scope of their employment and suffers mental illness or conditions, but do not suffer a physical injury. They need the protections workers’ compensation coverage can provide, just like first responders.

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 Death Benefit in Bill Should Be Expanded

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Omaha Sen. Health Mellow

Omaha Sen. Health Mellow

I was recently quoted in the Omaha World-Herald newspaper as a neutral testifier in the Nebraska Legislature regarding a bill being considered, LB 836.

As commentator Paul Harvey used to say, now here’s “the rest of the story.”

LB 836 is a bill sponsored by Omaha Sen. Health Mellow that “would provide a one-time $50,000 death benefit to the family of a law enforcement officer, firefighter or correctional officer killed during a violent or accidental incident while working,” according to the World-Herald article.

This bill should be passed to help first responders and I am glad that it would also cover volunteers in Nebraska, according to the World-Herald.

I have to ask: Why stop there? For many families, the on-the-job death of a loved one means so much tragedy, and LB 836 or another bill should be is introduced, passed, and be made into law to give a similar benefit to anyone who is killed on the job in the state of Nebraska. It’s an issue of inclusion. No one should be excluded from their loved ones having a bit more financial stability if the unthinkable happens on the job.

Sen. Mellow was quoted in the World-Herald saying that eight first responders in 16 years have been killed in the line of duty in Nebraska.

It is tragic and frustrating to hear about anyone killed at work, and one person dying is one too many. In this spirit, of the 4,679 fatal work injuries in 2014, 54 of them were in Nebraska, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Fatal Work Injuries in Nebraska – 2014 website.

The range of workplace fatalities varied from a high of 83 in 1994 to a low of 36 in 2005. In 2013, there were 39 deaths, and 48 people died at work in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics websites.

It appears that over the last 10 years, according to a table in the 2014 BLS document, approximately 492 workers’ loved ones would have appreciated worrying less about finances when their loved one died as a result of the workplace.

I feel strongly that grieving survivors should receive a significant death benefit for every Nebraska worker who is killed on the job. Right now, the beneficiaries of employees who are killed at work get $10,000, which these days is not even enough for a funeral and burial. Usually this is the tip of the iceberg regarding unexpected costs that loved ones endure, in addition to a brutal and unanticipated grieving process, too.

The average number of deaths a year that I gave at the hearing was on the low end: 36, based on the number that occurred in 2005.

But know that each of those people who died in a workplace incident had someone who loved her or him and who relied on that person and misses them immensely. Kudos to Sen. Dave Bloomfield of Hoskins, who recognized that the grieving process is universal, according to the article in the Lincoln Journal Star. I stand by the quote that was in the Journal Star, and want to emphasize that first responders are important contributors to society, as are other workers who are killed each year on the job, including those who make such occupational choices as steel workers, road workers, and packing plant workers.

“I’ve had those guys fall off roofs and die and get crushed. They’re doing a hell of a community service. So are road workers. So are the packing plant workers who get chewed up and spit out like the hamburger they’re making.”

All of them are contributing to society. So I hope we can honor them and their survivors through increased death benefits legislation to show those contributions.

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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