Quote of the day
"It is time for Mayor Bloomberg to end the war of attrition that city lawyers have been waging against the forgotten victims of 9/11."
Editorial, New York Daily News
Settlement to Pay Walnut Creek Pipeline Blast Victims Millions
Some of the victims of the November 2004 Walnut Creek pipeline explosion will get $6 million total from a settlement with the East Bay Municipal Utility District and one of its contractors. The settlements are the first to emerge out of a combination of about 17 wrongful death, personal injury and property damage lawsuits. By Mike Taugher, Contra Costa Times
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Central Valley Postman Turns in Moving Performance on Tape
A Clovis postal worker who had been collecting workers’ compensation for purported back and leg injuries is the star of two videos that show him unloading a moving truck of cabinets, a refrigerator, a slot machine and other heavy objects, in addition to washing his car and climbing a ladder. Now he faces almost three years in jail. Central Valley Business Times
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Flooring Firm Officers Charged with $10.9 Million Comp Fraud
The president and vice president of a Chatsworth flooring company are nabbed for allegedly conspiring to underreport payroll by more than $31.8 million, which resulted in their workers’ compensation premiums being reduced by more than $10.9 million between September 2001 and April 2006. KCAL-TV (Los Angeles)
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Editorial: New York Officials Should Demand Congressional Action on Ground Zero Workers’ Compensation
Sound public policy demands removing thousands of pending individual damage claims from the courts by adopting no-fault, expeditious compensation to people who can prove they were injured as a result of their work at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. New York Daily News
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Sing Sing Guard Busted for Comp Fraud
Shoddy work on a home improvement spurs a disgruntled homeowner to report a 37-year-old correctional officer of New York’s Sing Sing prison for collecting workers’ compensation while working construction. The guard, who reportedly injured himself in a staircase fall while working, is among nine “creatures of thought” in the Lower Hudson area charged with workers’ compensation fraud totaling more than $284,000. By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, Journal News (White Plains, N.Y.)
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Metal Stamper Limited to Workers’ Comp from Temp Agency
American Machinist breaks down the case of a worker who was assigned to a Rhode Island metal stamping facility, the special employer, by his temporary employment agency, and sued the special employer for negligence after he was injured. American Machinist
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Crooked Aussie Cop Builds Nest Egg While in Prison
In Australia, a detective convicted of trafficking heroin, whose legal fees were taxpayer-funded, is collecting permanent disability benefits during his incarceration for a back injury he sustained in a job-related car accident. Additionally, he reportedly is receiving a temporary disability pension for a stress-related illness. By Geoff Wilkinson, Herald Sun (Melbourne) via News.com.au
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Teachers Not Poisoned, Worksafe BC Rules
Worksafe B.C., British Columbia’s workers’ compensation agency, rejects claims by four British Columbia secondary school teachers that they were poisoned by mercury vapors at a school, although it acknowledges that they were exposed to mercury. By Gerry Warner, Cranbrook Daily Townsman via OHS Canada
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Commentary: Will Heads Roll in Ohio?
If defense attorneys in the trial of Tom Noe are correct that their client had a de facto license to borrow state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation funds for his own purposes, then a new investigation of state investment policies is needed. Wheeling (W.V.) Intelligencer
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