While professional teams in California have sheltered themselves from workers' compensation claims, the injuries have not gone away. Workers' compensation has long been a vehicle to insulate employers and their insurance carriers from the payment of benefits. With the erosion of workers' compensation as a functional benefit program, many experts are now calling for its elimination altogether and merely allow the claims to proceed in the civil justice system. Today's post is shared from sportsworldnews.com .
A California workers panel threw out former Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett's brain-injury claim just months before he was diagnosed with initial signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
The diagnosis of Dorsett, the 59-year-old Hall of Fame running back, was made public Wednesday when two UCLA researchers found that Dorsett, Hall of Fame offensive lineman Joe DeLamielleure and former All-Pro defensive lineman Leonard Marshall showed signs of CTE, a degenerative disease that has been linked to head trauma.The condition has led to depression, dementia and suicide in former NFL players. Dorsett's claim was denied in May when a workers compensation judge ruled that Dorsett agreed to an $85,000 settlement for injuries to "multiple orthopaedic body parts" in 1991, the Times reported. Therefore, the player was not allowed to file any more claims for subsequent injury, according to state records. Dorsett appealed that workers'... |
