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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Canada court allows disabled veteran class action to continue

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from jurist.org


A judge for the Supreme Court of British Columbia [official website] on Friday declined to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by disabled members of the Canadian military seeking to invalidate a veteran compensation law that limits payments to disabled veterans. 

Last year disabled veterans joined together to challenge the constitutionality of the 2005 New Veterans Charter (NVC) [government backgrounder], which gave disabled soldiers capped one-time payments in lieu of lifetime monthly payments.

The veterans assert that the NVC's lump-sum payment system fails to adequately provide for disabled veterans returning from the war in Afghanistan. 

The Attorney General of Canada [official website] filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to make out a winnable claim. Justice Gordon Weatherill, however, denied the motion, emphasizing that the case raises important issues [Canadian Press report] regarding the government's promises to compensate injured service members. 

The court ordered the government to file a response to the plaintiffs' complaint.

Veterans' rights remain a controversial issue around the globe, especially in the US. Earlier this month the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced [JURIST report] that it will no longer enforce a federal law that denies same-sex spouses veterans...
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EpiPens for All

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


AMARRIA JOHNSON, who attended first grade at Hopkins Elementary School in Richmond, Va., was an outgoing and energetic girl who loved animals, singing and telling jokes. She won reading and citizenship awards and planned to become a teacher. She also was allergic to peanuts.

On Jan. 2, 2012, a classmate gave Amarria a peanut on the playground. Despite her allergy, Amarria ate the nut and soon had trouble breathing. She sought out a teacher, but at the school health clinic, there was no epinephrine auto-injector prescribed for Amarria. Epinephrine auto-injectors, the most well known of which are EpiPens, contain adrenaline and are the first line of emergency treatment for anaphylaxis, an extremely severe allergic reaction that can become fatal within minutes.

At the time, employees in Amarria’s public school were not allowed to use epinephrine prescribed for one student on a different child; instead, the school called an ambulance, which transported Amarria to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead of anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.

I’m the mother of a child with food allergies, and stories like Amarria’s are my worst nightmare. In describing her tragedy, I question the fairness of reducing a 7-year-old girl to a symbol. Nevertheless I repeat the circumstances of Amarria’s death because it appears they directly affected legislation in her state.

Just a few months after she died, “Amarria’s Law” was in place; the law requires...
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State Senate passes bill limiting pro teams' workers' comp liability


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

An effort by the National Football League and owners of other professional sports teams to limit workers' compensation claims by out-of-state athletes is close to final passage in the California Legislature.

The measure cleared the state Senate on Friday on a 34-2 vote. In May, it passed the Assembly, 61-4.

The latest version of the bill is expected to win final passage next week in the Assembly and be on the governor's desk shortly after the scheduled Sept. 13 legislative recess.
Because of its liberally interpreted workplace-injury laws, California has become the de facto forum of last resort for so-called cumulative trauma claims, including head injuries, by retired players. Many of them may have participated in just a handful of games in California over the course of their careers.

The crackdown on a workers' compensation claims by athletes has been the focus of a major lobbying campaign by the National Football League and other pro-sports franchises. Former athletes have filed more than 4,400 claims involving head and brain injuries since 2006.

Claims by athletes represent an estimated potential $1-billion liability for the NFL alone, though they represent only a tiny percentage of all California workers' compensation cases

The bill, AB 1309 by Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno), does not affect players who spent their careers with California-based football, baseball, basketball, hockey or soccer teams.

However, it bans claims from athletes who...

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Monday, September 9, 2013

In South Florida, a Polluted Bubble Ready to Burst

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


On wind-whipped days when rain pounds this part of South Florida, people are quickly reminded that Lake Okeechobee, with its vulnerable dike and polluted waters, has become a giant environmental problem far beyond its banks.


Beginning in May, huge downpours ushered in the most significant threat in almost a decade to the bulging lake and its 80-year-old earthen dike, a turn of events with far-reaching consequences. The summer rains set off a chain reaction that devastated three major estuaries far to the east and west, distressing residents, alarming state and federal officials and prompting calls for remedial action.

With lake waters at their limit, there were only two choices, neither of them good. One was to risk breaching the 143-mile dike, a potential catastrophe to the agricultural tracts south of the lake and the small communities that depend on them. The other was to release billions of gallons of polluted water into delicate estuaries to the east and west.

Following its post-Hurricane Katrina guidelines, the Army Corps of Engineers chose the estuaries, rather than test the dike’s vulnerabilities.

As a result, the St. Lucie River estuary in the east and the Caloosahatchee River estuary in the west, which depend on a naturally calibrated balance of salt and fresh water, were overwhelmed. The rush of fresh water from the lake and the estuaries’ own river basins, along with the pollutants carried in from farms,...
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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Fla. appeals court says $33M in damages to smoker’s widow not excessive

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


A Florida appeals court this week denied a tobacco company’s request for a new trial in a lawsuit brought against the company by the widow of a former smoker.
Rothenberg
Rothenberg

Also Wednesday, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal upheld a $33 million award to the widow, Dorothy Alexander, saying the damages were not excessive.

After a three-week trial, the jury found in favor of Alexander on her claims against Lorillard Tobacco Company for strict liability, fraudulent concealment, conspiracy to commit fraud by concealment and negligence, but found Alexander’s husband, Coleman, 20 percent comparatively liable.

The jury awarded Alexander $20 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.

Lorillard filed multiple post-trial motions, including motions seeking remittitur of the compensatory and punitive damages awards.

The Miami-Dade County Circuit Court denied all of Lorillard’s post-trial motions except the motion for remittitur of the compensatory damages award and remitted the compensatory damages award to $10 million.

After computation of comparative fault, Alexander was awarded $8 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages, which the trial court declined to remit.
Lorillard appealed.

On appeal, the tobacco company basically reiterated its post-trial claims of error. Additionally, it claimed that it is entitled to a new trial on compensatory damages rather than the...
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'Flurry' Of New Reports Show Wide Variations On Insurance Rate Costs

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org


News outlets continue to follow recent studies released by several health policy groups about the expected premiums for plans offered on the new online insurance marketplaces.

McClatchy: Studies Show Varying Costs For Coverage Under Obamacare
A flurry of new reports from prominent health care research organizations show the cost of individual health coverage under Obamacare will vary widely among states next year, but drastic predictions of premium "sticker shock" have not materialized thus far. New research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the RAND Corp. and Avalere Health have found competitive, affordable prices for individual coverage in states where the information is available. Those states include Washington, California, Florida, South Carolina and Texas (Pugh, 9/5).

Marketplace: New Reports Give Estimated Costs Of Healthcare Reform Plans
The health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act open in October. This week some reports are giving new estimates of how much money it will take to get into some of those plans (Hill, 9/5).

Huffington Post: Obamacare Premiums Will Vary Widely By State And City: Report
Retail prices for health insurance can be considerably different based in part on the cost of health care services where a person lives, even within the same state, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported Wednesday. Premiums also vary based on age, family size and tobacco use. But under Obamacare, prices cannot be based on someone's medical history and patients...
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Price of Vicodin Three Times More in Maryland and Pennsylvania When Dispensed by a Physician

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


New studies from Cambridge-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) says the average price paid for physician-dispensed Vicodin, a commonly dispensed narcotic pain medication in Maryland and Pennsylvania, was three times more than the price paid for the same drug dispensed at a pharmacy ($1.46 versus $0.37 per pill in Maryland and $1.22 versus $0.37 per pill in Pennsylvania).

According to the studies, the average prices paid to physician-dispensers were often more than double the prices paid for the same drugs dispensed at a pharmacy. Issues related to physician dispensing in Maryland have been debated, but no change has been made.

Physician dispensing has been growing rapidly in Pennsylvania. In 2011, physicians dispensed 23 percent of workers’ compensation prescriptions and were paid 38 percent of what was spent for all prescriptions for injured workers. This was an increase from 17 percent of all prescriptions and 18 percent of total prescription costs three years earlier.

“In many states across the country, policymakers are debating whether doctors should be paid significantly more than pharmacies for dispensing the same drug,” said Dr. Richard Victor, WCRI’s executive director. “One question for policymakers is whether the large price difference paid when physicians dispense is justified by the benefits of physician dispensing.”

The Maryland  study found that prices paid to physician-dispensers for many common drugs...
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