Quote of the day
"We're going to fight 'til we can't fight no more. We're not fighting over any of the money. We just want what belongs to Judy given back to Judy, and I think that's what anybody else would want too."
Kenny Gilliland, whose wife, a Longview, Texas police officer stricken with viral meningitis, has been turned down for workers' comp and light-duty work.
Monterey Attorney Discusses Jones Case
Monterey attorney Christine Balbo Reed discusses Jones v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a case in which California’s Fourth Appellate District concluded that employees cannot sue their employers for inappropriate workplace behavior of coworkers that leads to a workers’ compensation injury. By Christine Balbo Reed, Salinas Californian
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Texas City Denies Police Officer’s Meningitis Workers’ Comp Claim
The husband of a Longview, Texas police officer who contracted viral meningitis in February says the city will terminate his wife’s employment next week. The city has denied her workers’ compensation claim on grounds her affliction was a pre-existing condition unrelated to her employment. A risk manager for the city says it does not offer light-duty jobs in such circumstances. By Maggie Souza and Dayna Worchel, Longview News-Journal
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Missouri Injury Fund’s Payouts Have More Than Tripled Since ’94
Benefits paid from Missouri’s Second Injury Fund, which, according to a recent state audit, is nearing insolvency, have increased by more than 340 percent in 12 years. By Rod Chapel, Springfield Business Journal
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Florida Compliance Sweep Nets Nearly Two Dozen Scofflaws
In Florida, where employers are seeing a cumulative 40-percent drop in premiums, a workers’ compensation compliance sweep of 177 businesses in two counties results in 23 stop-work orders against employers found operating without coverage. By Taylor Shutt, WMBB-TV (Panama City, Fla.)
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Tough Market Spawned Peach State Self-Insured Group
When executives at 16 building companies across Georgia considered forming their own self-insurance fund in the early 1990’s, traditional workers’ compensation insurers were pulling out of the market. But what looked like a tough time for the construction industry gave birth to Atlanta-based Builders Insurance Group, the state’s largest workers’ comp underwriter that now counts more than 13,000 policyholders. Gwinnett Business Journal (Georgia)
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Who Will Challenge BrickStreet?
It’s not what’s said, but who shows up at a conference scheduled for early next month in Charleston for potential workers’ compensation carriers in West Virginia that will be interesting. BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. has been the sole provider of workers’ comp insurance in West Virginia since the state system was privatized on Jan. 1, 2006; other carries can enter the market next July. By George Hohmann, Charleston Daily Mail
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Commentary: South Carolina’s Reform an Important Step
South Carolina lawmakers took an important step to enhance the state’s pro-business climate last month when Gov. Mark Sanford signed workers’ compensation reforms to rein in premium costs and inject predictability, consistency and rationality into the system. Expansion Management
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Jockey Strike Nears Finish Line
The strike by Tasmanian horse racing jockeys could be over after the Jockeys Association meets with government and racing council officials on a new workers’ compensation offer. ABC Tasmania
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Connecticut Driver Busted for Workers’ Comp Fraud
A Connecticut ice cream delivery driver faces up to 20 years in prison in connection with a workers’ compensation fraud charge. The driver allegedly performed various activities including lawn-mowing while collecting benefits for a slip-and-fall injury. By Mark D. Simpson, Journal Inquirer (Connecticut)
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