Friday, February 27, 2015
Supreme Court upholds Kubota liability in asbestos death case
Today's post is shared from japantimes.com/
It’s the first time the Supreme Court has upheld a lower court decision recognizing corporate responsibility for asbestos-related illness in someone living near a factory.
All five judges on the court’s Third Petty Bench, led by Justice Takehiko Otani, upheld the ruling Tuesday, court officials said.
The plaintiffs were relatives of Kojiro Yamauchi, who died at age 80 after working for two decades about 200 meters from the Kubota plant in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture.
He lived near his workplace.
His relatives and those of Ayako Yasui, who died at age 85 having lived about 1 km from the plant, sought damages from both Kubota and the government.
The Kobe District Court ruled in August 2012 that asbestos fibers had spread outside the plant, ordering Kubota to pay damages to Yamauchi’s family, but not Yasui’s. The decision was later upheld by the Osaka High Court, and now by the Supreme Court.
The government was not liable, the lower courts ruled, because not enough was known about the risk to nearby residents to implement regulations.
Kubota has offered compensation to residents since 2005, but it has denied there is any link between local illnesses and fibers from the plant. The plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case did not receive the...
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Growing Industrial Accident Complex
Who is to blame for the rapidly developing problems/changes with workers' compensation programs? These issues are generating reforms that are transforming the work related social insurance remedial system into a completely different benefit program.
Today's post is authored by David DePaolo and shared from http://daviddepaolo.blogspot.com/
I was talking to a physician friend of mine yesterday.
I know - the first thing in your mind is that you didn't know I had any friends and second question is why, assuming I did have friends, a smart guy like a doctor would talk to me.
Those are beside the point - the crux of the conversation centered on his clinical observation over the past 30 plus years of practicing orthopedic medicine in both forensic (including work comp and auto) and non-forensic settings is that the forensic medical complex routinely produces worse outcomes than the non-forensic setting.
My friend has done principally defense oriented forensic work, but is also widely used as an independent medical examiner and agreed medical examiner - he was speaking from a purely interested scientist's perspective.
He relayed a couple of clinical stories - stories that I think are all too common.
The basic theme is that Patient (I'll use that instead of injured worker, because I'm trying to relay this from the physician's view), a 60 year old female worker, complains of pain, tingling and numbness in her hands.
She makes a workers' compensation claim because she BELIEVES that her work has something to do with it (and yes, there are co-morbidities and other factors).
The insurance company denies the claim. She lawyers up, they fight over causation, insurance company loses that battle.
That process takes about four years.
This is after nearly every doctor that Patient sees, whether on "her side" or for the defense, opine that there likely is SOME industrial component.
Today's post is authored by David DePaolo and shared from http://daviddepaolo.blogspot.com/
I was talking to a physician friend of mine yesterday.
I know - the first thing in your mind is that you didn't know I had any friends and second question is why, assuming I did have friends, a smart guy like a doctor would talk to me.
Those are beside the point - the crux of the conversation centered on his clinical observation over the past 30 plus years of practicing orthopedic medicine in both forensic (including work comp and auto) and non-forensic settings is that the forensic medical complex routinely produces worse outcomes than the non-forensic setting.
My friend has done principally defense oriented forensic work, but is also widely used as an independent medical examiner and agreed medical examiner - he was speaking from a purely interested scientist's perspective.
He relayed a couple of clinical stories - stories that I think are all too common.
The basic theme is that Patient (I'll use that instead of injured worker, because I'm trying to relay this from the physician's view), a 60 year old female worker, complains of pain, tingling and numbness in her hands.
She makes a workers' compensation claim because she BELIEVES that her work has something to do with it (and yes, there are co-morbidities and other factors).
The insurance company denies the claim. She lawyers up, they fight over causation, insurance company loses that battle.
That process takes about four years.
This is after nearly every doctor that Patient sees, whether on "her side" or for the defense, opine that there likely is SOME industrial component.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Injured workers suffer if courts are closed
Gov. Chris Christie spent most of his Tuesday budget address talking about the state's supposedly crippling pension burden, tossing around billion-dollar numbers and warning of dire consequences without more reforms.
Compared to all that, the proposed closing of a workers' compensation court in Lebanon Township seems like pretty small potatoes.
Financially, it is — closing the court would save a grand total of about $160,000, plus some additional staff expenses. And that doesn't even come out of state funds; the courts are financed by the Second Injury Fund (SIF), revenue for which Is generated by surcharges and taxes on the workers' compensation insurance policies of employers.
So this isn't a meaningful budget issue; it falls under the category of micromanaging a minimal expense and claiming it's fiscally responsible. But the impact on the lives of injured workers who are already suffering could be significant, which makes the closure a poorly conceived idea that's hardly worth the modest savings it would achieve.
The Lebanon court now services three counties — Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren. Closing it would send workers in those counties involved in claims disputes to the next nearest court, either in New Brunswick in Middlesex County or Mount Arlington in Morris County. For most that will mean a longer commute — in some cases much longer — in areas that aren't exactly...
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Roadways in need of repairs fall victim to reduced federal funding
Westbound lanes of Interstate 80 during widening near the Waverly exit in 2013. Governors and lawmakers in several states are proposing new taxes, tolls and fees to repair a road system whose historical reliance on fuel taxes no longer provides enough money to cover its costs.
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Medical Record Privacy: Does it Really Exist in a Workers' Compensation Claim?
Since before the evolution/promulgation of HIPPA, the nation's workers' compensation system has struggled with issues surrounding medical record privacy and dissemination of data. While establishing an aura of confidentiality, the nation's workers' compensation system has difficulty in maintaining strict medical record privacy.
Excluded from HIPPA, workers' compensation programs exchange huge amounts of medical records in order to efficiently and expeditiously process work related traumatic and occupational exposure claims. The balancing of interests continues to be an evolving process, especially in light of recent mass computer hacking of corporate entities and their employee data.
In a recent social media posting, John Geaney, Esq. defense attorney practicing in NJ, describes how NJ employers and employee may obtain/exchange/disseminate medical records. Albeit that is only the tip of the medical records corporate iceberg/nightmare, the future remains even more uncertain as computer hacking escalates and national computer security issues become more involved and complicated. The future will even become more complicated as interests of stakeholders are increasingly challenged by technology.
Excluded from HIPPA, workers' compensation programs exchange huge amounts of medical records in order to efficiently and expeditiously process work related traumatic and occupational exposure claims. The balancing of interests continues to be an evolving process, especially in light of recent mass computer hacking of corporate entities and their employee data.
In a recent social media posting, John Geaney, Esq. defense attorney practicing in NJ, describes how NJ employers and employee may obtain/exchange/disseminate medical records. Albeit that is only the tip of the medical records corporate iceberg/nightmare, the future remains even more uncertain as computer hacking escalates and national computer security issues become more involved and complicated. The future will even become more complicated as interests of stakeholders are increasingly challenged by technology.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Women’s Workplace Injuries
Today's post is shared from Brett Gowen of the California Bar, Fraulob, Brown, Gowen & Snapp, a Professional Law Corporation
Today, CAAA releases the eighth infographic in our series “What’s Wrong with this Picture?” series, spotlighting in short, visual terms key facts in California workers’ compensation.
Today, we focus on the fact that women workers suffer work injuries more frequently as they age than do men of comparable ages.
This is the second in a series spotlighting women’s workplace injuries and gender discrimination by workers’ compensation insurers.
For all the infographs in the series,visit the C.A.A.A. website and this link here.
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Today, CAAA releases the eighth infographic in our series “What’s Wrong with this Picture?” series, spotlighting in short, visual terms key facts in California workers’ compensation.
Today, we focus on the fact that women workers suffer work injuries more frequently as they age than do men of comparable ages.
This is the second in a series spotlighting women’s workplace injuries and gender discrimination by workers’ compensation insurers.
For all the infographs in the series,visit the C.A.A.A. website and this link here.
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)