New Orleans' 2014 budget projections show sharp increase in workers’ compensation costs

Today's post is share from  thelensnola.org/ The cost of administering the city of New Orleans workers’ compensation program is projected to increase sharply next year — nearly six times for some employees, according to 2014 budget projections shared with The Lens. On Thursday, Courtney Bagneris, the city’s interim risk manager, is expected to give the City Council budget committee a preliminary report on an audit of the program, said Lauren Hotard, a spokeswoman for Councilwoman Stacy Head. That should include some explanation for the increase, she said. $16 million Budgeted for workers’ comp claims in 2013 $24 million Expected claims in 2013 City Budget Director Cary Grant told the budget committee in August that the city was experiencing a “large uptick” in workers’ compensation claims this year. The city budgeted $16 million for such expenses this year; he said he expected claims to exceed $24 million. While significant, that’s nowhere near the sixfold increase projected in next year’s budget, from about $300 to $1,700 per employee. Grant did not address the 2014 projections in his presentation. Such an increase would cost the city about $2.5 million more in next year’s budget of about $500 million. Head revealed  the 2014 price jump during an Aug. 30 Lens live chat on the city’s 2014 budget, writing that the Council Fiscal Office had just informed councilmembers of the increase for their staff’s personnel costs. “We don’t...

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BP Trial in 2nd Phase, to Set Amount of Oil Spilled

Post shared from the nytimes.com.

With billions of dollars in penalties at stake, the civil trial of the British oil company BP begins its second phase on Monday, which will set the amount of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 workers and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches. The government will argue that a total 4.2 million barrels of oil was discharged into the sea over 87 days, the equivalent of nearly one-quarter of all the oil that is consumed in the United States in a day. BP will counter that the number was closer to 2.45 million barrels. This phase of the trial will also determine if BP prepared adequately for a blowout and if it responded properly once the oil started flowing. Both sides will present their case in Federal District Court in New Orleans using competing technical calculations over the next four weeks. Hanging in the balance are Clean Water Act fines that range from a maximum of $1,100 for every barrel spilled through simple negligence to as much as $4,300 a barrel if a company is found to have been grossly negligent. “This will be largely a battle of experts,” Blaine G. LeCesne, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. The first phase of the trial, which took place over two months this year, centered on whether BP and its contractors were guilty of gross negligence — tantamount to wanton and reckless behavior — in causing the blowout of the Macondo well. Judge Carl J....

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BP claims investigation finds attorney took $40K kickback in exchange for expediting nearly $8M claim

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

The results of a two-month long investigation into allegations of fraud within the 2010 oil spill settlement program have revealed an alleged kickback scheme enacted by a claims attorney. Lionel Sutton, a former senior attorney within the Court Supervised Settlement Program, or CSSP, is accused of taking a $40,000 referral fee from the Andry Lerner Law Firm and attempted to more quickly resolve a claim worth $7,908,460. The New Orleans firm, which bills itself as “BP Oil Spill Lawyers” on the firm website, is accused of using Sutton’s position within the claims center to make the acceptance of the claim in question faster and easier. Freeh The investigation was headed by ex-FBI Director Louis B. Freeh who was asked to be a special investigator on the case by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in early July after claims administrator Patrick Juneau revealed that an internal investigation into the CSSP showed potential conflicts of interest. The $7.9 million claim in question was originally a case handled by Christine Reitano, Sutton’s wife, who shortly after receiving the case became an employee of the claims administration office. Subsequent to her appointment Sutton is alleged to have referred the case to the Andry Lerner Law Firm for a referral fee to be paid to Crown LLC, a water reclamation company he owned and in which Andry Lerner partner Glen Lerner had invested $1 million. Freeh stated in the report that...

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Government workers' compensation payments surge in New Orleans

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.nola.com

new-orleans-city-hall.jpg As New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu continues to weave through another tight budget year, his administration is having to deal with yet another major fiscal blow: a projected $8 million jump in payments this year to city employees hurt on the job. Landrieu's budget director, Cary Grant, told the City Council's Budget Committee this week that he expects payments for workers' compensation claims -- primarily from firefighters -- will increase from $16 million in 2012 to $24 million by the end of 2013. Grant offered no theory for the 50 percent jump, but he said the administration has hired a forensic auditing firm from Sacramento, Calif., Bickmore Risk Services, to comb through the city's stacks of claims and payments to find ways to save money. Auditors will also examine the work of the claims management firm Landrieu hired last year: Hammerman & Gainer Inc. of New Orleans. Bickmore began its audit on Monday, said Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Courtney Bagneris, who has been filling in for the city's departed risk management director, Michael McKenna. She told the committee the administration expects to have a full report by mid-October. The city has roughly 1,000 outstanding workers' compensation claims, with more than three out of four coming from the Fire Department. To slow that trend, Bagneris said, the administration is developing a "light-duty program" that will let...

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Facing Fire Over Challenge to Louisiana’s Oil Industry

Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

State Senator Gerald Long of Louisiana calls it “kind of a gentlemen’s agreement.” For the generations since Mr. Long’s third cousin Huey P. Long was the governor, this state has relied on the oil and gas industry for a considerable part of its revenues and for tens of thousands of jobs. In return, the industry has largely found the state an obliging partner and staunch political ally as it has fought off curbs on its business. Now, however, a panel of state appointees, created after Hurricane Katrina to be largely insulated from politics, showed just how insulated it was by upending the agreement.