Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog

In Martz v. Hills Materials, a case from the Supreme Court of South Dakota, claimant injured his shoulder in 2000 while working at a mining company. Claimant filed a workers’ compensation claim and received benefits for the work-related injury.

In this accident, his employer was self-insured, accepted liability for workers’ compensation, and paid for all medical bills related to his rotator cuff surgery and lost wages associated with his disability rating.

Two years later, claimant injured the same shoulder while working for another employer. This employer ran a sawmill. While working, claimant reported he felt a pop in his left shoulder while moving a log. Claimant filed again for workers’ compensation benefits and employer initially paid benefits but later terminated his benefits.
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In re Worker’s Compensation Claim of Stevens, a workers’ compensation appeal from the Supreme Court of Wyoming, involved claimant who was injured when she fell down a flight of stairs outside her workplace. She worked at an aquatics facility, and the accident occurred in late 2010. After falling down the steps, claimant crawled back into her workplace and was helped by her coworkers.

Her husband drove her to the hospital that day, and doctors diagnosed her with fractures in one of her fingers and the fifth metacarpal of her left hand. Intake records show she was able to walk, her main complaint was pain in her hand, and she denied any other injuries from the fall.

The following day, a surgeon operated on her left hand and noted she had pain in her hand and arm. He prescribed pain medication and saw her during follow-up visits over the next few months.
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Morales v. Zenith Ins. Co., a workers’ compensation case from the Supreme Court of Florida, involved an employee who was crushed to death by a palm tree while working at employer’s lawn care business. Employee’s surviving spouse entered into a settlement agreement with employer and its liability insurance carrier. This agreement contained a release of liability in which surviving spouse elected that this would be her sole remedy in connection with the fatal accident.

After reaching this settlement, plaintiff filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against employer and obtained a default judgment in the amount of $9.525 million in damages. After the default judgment was entered, employer refused to pay the judgment. At this point, plaintiff sued employer again in state court, alleging employer breached its agreement under their liability policy. Employer had the case removed to federal court.
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In Deon v. H &J, Inc., claimant was employed in a full-time capacity as a maintenance technician for employer from 2003 until 2009. A few years prior to working for employer, claimant injured her shoulders and neck. She filed for workers’ compensation and received a six percent permanent partial disability rating. The following year, dogs attacked claimant, and the injuries resulted in a seven percent permanent partial disability rating. This was not related to the current workers’ compensation lawsuit.

A year later, when claimant was using a power auger to clear a kitchen sink drain in a hotel, her right glove became caught in the auger and crushed her wrist and hand. Doctors initially diagnosed claimant with a hand sprain and two finger sprains and bruises. She was eventually cleared to return to work full time, but her supervisor felt she was not physically capable of performing the work in the manner she could before the on-the-job injury.

Her doctor placed serious lifting restrictions on her work activities, and she was then terminated because employer did not have any jobs that worked with her medical restrictions. Doctors and vocational experts (VEs) could not concur on a disability rating, which varied between two percent and 85 percent. As our Boston workers’ compensation injury attorneys can explain, the process of establishing a disability rating is extremely complicated and requires a thorough understand of agency policy and relevant law.
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Employers are supposed to follow basic safety rules in order to ensure the risk of an employee getting hurt or sick is minimized. Unfortunately, this does not always occur. In fact, there are many situations where regulations passed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are either willfully or unintentionally violated.

OSHA can issue fines and citations, but these are often too low to act as a deterrent and OSHA typically does not find out about problems and issue fines until after a worker has already gotten hurt. Criminal prosecution is also possible when willful violations happen, but a Boston workers’ compensation lawyer knows it is rare for prosecutors to file criminal charges.

In one case, however, criminal charges are actually being brought against a CEO. If the CEO is convicted, this case could serve as an important warning to those who run companies about the importance of making sure they follow worker safety laws Continue reading