Tag Archives: Werner

Update: Nebraska placed on NYC-area COVID quarantine list

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This is an update of a post published on July 6, 2020

Americans can live and work where they want within the United States. But as I wrote last year, they aren’t free to claim workers’ compensation where they want. But true to form, COVID-19 has added another complication to this constitutional conundrum.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced fines for residents who did not quarantine for 14 days after travelling to states with rising COVID-19 cases. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut added Nebraska to the quarantine list on July 21st.

The City of Chicago implemented a similar quarantine policy, but have not added Nebraska to their list of states.

In short, injured workers in those states face a 14-day quarantine if they forced to travel to Nebraska for their workers’ compensation case. The new quarantine will impact truckers who live in those states who got hurt working for Nebraska-based Crete Carrier and Werner.

A rock and a hard place for injured workers

I sympathize with and share the public health concerns of my friends and colleagues in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois. But if COVID cases continue to increase and or more states start imposing quarantines, more injured workers are going be facing the prospect of a quarantine if they travel out of state for their workers’ compensation cases.

As enhanced unemployment benefits expire this month, a worker under quarantine faces a lot of uncertainty over income. This is especially true for an injured workers who may have already been facing financial hardship before the pandemic. Quarantines may give employers/defendants more leverage in settlement negotiations as well.

Alternatives to interstate travel?

Are there alternatives to in-person workers’ compensation hearings? Per Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-177, in Nebraska parties can agree to video hearings. But there is no way for a Judge to force a video hearing. Many lawyers and judges seem to prefer in person hearings when they need to weigh the credibility of witness testimony. Many workers’ compensation trials have the injured worker as the sole witness. But the credibility of the medical records submitted into the records often relies on the credibility of the witness.

Before trial, employers will often depose or question injured workers. Courts have more power to force video or telephonic depositions. So an out of state worker is more likely to avoid a trip back to Nebraska for a deposition. But I have had out of state clients compelled to travel to Nebraska for depositions.

Travel within Nebraska

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have seen more efforts to move depositions from central and western Nebraska to Lincoln. Within Nebraska, employers have less power to compel an injured worker to travel long distances for trial or deposition. At the IRS mileage rate, the cost of driving across Nebraska can equal the cost of air travel to a regional air hub like Denver or Chicago.

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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Denied workers’ compensation and health insurance for a work injury? You might have a counter

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Ohio State lines up to run a QB counter against Nebraska

My colleagues Paul McAndrew from Iowa and Bernard Nomberg from Alabama have blogged about the tragic but common situation of an employee who puts a work injury on private health insurance only to have health insurance deny payment because they discover the injury is work-related.

It is another example of injured workers getting squeezed. But in the right circumstances an injured worker can squeeze back— a counter-squeeze if you will.

In Nebraska health insurance benefits are considered wages. Nebraska allows employees to receive attorney fees when they sue for unpaid wages under what is called the Nebraska Wage Payment and Collection Act.  So an employer who is denying medical benefits under workers’ compensation, should not be able to deny payment of those bills under private health insurance.

Nebraska also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for claiming workers’ compensation benefits. Retaliation is an adverse action related to the terms and conditions of employment. Denying payment of wages, in the form of health insurance, because the employee has filed a workers’ compensation claim should be retaliation.

So employers denying workers’ compensation and health insurance benefits can find themselves facing a wage and hour and retaliation case.  Of course, these types of cases are a lot more complicated than described in the last two paragraphs.

In order for the counter-squeeze to work, it is best to have an employer who is at a minimum self-insured for the purposes of health insurance and ideally self-insured for health insurance and workers’ compensation. Tyson, Crete Carrier and Werner Enterprises are large Nebraska employers who fit into the latter category. Self-insurance is important because it allows the employee to link the decision to deny benefits to the employer. In theory you can still make a counter-squeeze work when outside insurance companies are involved, but that turns the case into a civil conspiracy case that can be more costly and difficult to prove.

Wage and hour cases also require detailed proof of medical bills and existence of a valid contract for payment of benefits. If an employee appears to have misrepresented how an injury happened, an employer may be able to fire an employee regardless of any retaliatory motive on their part. But the employee who at first blush may have “screwed up their case” by paying for their workers’ compensation injury with their private health insurance, may be able to salvage a good outcome in their work injury case.

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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