Denver Worker's Compensation Info

Monday, August 19, 2013

Lawsuit: Unpaid Film Interns Considered Employees

By Abby Ellin

Jun 13, 2013 1:39pm

Two interns who worked on the film “Black Swan” are considered to be Fox Searchlight employees, a Federal Judge ruled recently. A third intern can represent a class, Courthouse New reported.

In October 2011, Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman, interns on the film “Black Swan” from 2009 to 2010, sued Fox Searchlight and its parent company, Fox Entertainment Group, under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law.

Neither Glatt, who said he worked in accounting, nor Footman, who said he was in the production office, received pay or college credit while working on the film in New York.

“This practice runs afoul of basic wage-and-hour laws, which require that employers pay all of their employees – even those desperate for the work – the minimum wage, as well as overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek,” the complaint said. ”In misclassifying many of its workers as unpaid interns, Fox Searchlight has denied them the benefits that the law affords to employees, including unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance, sexual harassment and discrimination protections, and, most crucially, the right to earn a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.”

Glatt claimed he worked five days a week for 40 to 50 hours per week, for 51 days. He worked another 44 days in post-production. Footman said he worked five days a week, 40 to 50 hours a week, for about 95 days.

The movie took in more than $300 million in revenues.

The men seek class damages for money owed on Fox Searchlight films from September 2005 until the final judgment. They also seek an injunction to prevent Fox Searchlight from using unpaid interns on its film productions. According to the suit, Fox Searchlight used more than 100 unpaid interns on “Black Swan.”

Read More: Unpaid Interns Denied Class Status

In the 36-page decision, Judge William Pauley III acknowledged that Glatt and Footman clearly benefited from their internships with resume listings, job references and “an understanding of how a production office works.”

“But those benefits were incidental to working in the office like any other employee and were not the result of internships intentionally structured to benefit them,” the judge continued. “Resume listings and job references result from any work relationship, paid or unpaid, and are not the academic or vocational training benefits envisioned by this factor.

“On the other hand, Searchlight received the benefits of their unpaid work, which otherwise would have required paid employees.”

Interns have filed lawsuits against other media companies. On Thursday, two former interns filed a lawsuit against Condé Nast, the New York Times reports. They claimed the company did not pay them minimum wage during their summer jobs at W Magazine and The New Yorker, in 2009 and 2010. They asked that it be approved as a class-action suit.

In May, a New York judge dismissed a class-action suit by a group of unpaid interns against Hearst Corp. The judge ruled that they don’t meet the definition of a class, but that they could sue as individuals.

A third intern in the Fox case, Eden Antalik, who worked at Searchlight’s corporate offices in New York, can represent a class of other unpaid interns alleging violation of New York Labor Law, Pauley ruled. Those interns worked at various Fox Entertainment Group outfits from Sept. 28, 2008 to Sept. 1, 2010.

Read More: UN-NGO Internship Auctioned

While both Glatt and Footman knew they were not going to be paid—and they did not expect to be hired at the end of their internships—”this factor adds little, because the FLSA does not allow employees to waive their entitlement to wages,” Pauley wrote. “Considering the totality of the circumstances, Glatt and Footman were classified improperly as unpaid interns and are ‘employees’ covered by the FLSA and NYLL.”

In a statement, Fox spokesman Chris Petrikin said that the company believes the Court’s rulings are “erroneous, and will seek to have them reversed by the [U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals] as quickly as possible.”

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Obese File Twice as Many Workers' Comp Claims - Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. Worker's Comp Blog

Mar. 23

By Robert Preidt

MONDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- A new study of almost 12,000 Duke University employees found that obese workers filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims, and had 13 times more lost work days due to work injury/illness than non-obese employees.

The study, by researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., also found that obese workers in high-risk jobs incurred the highest medical and economic costs of all employees.

The study is published in the April 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"We all know obesity is bad for the individual, but it isn't solely a personal medical problem -- it spills over into the workplace and has concrete economic costs," study author Dr. Truls Ostbye, a professor of community and family medicine, said in a prepared statement.

"Given the strong link between obesity and worker's compensations costs, maintaining healthy weight is not only important to workers but should also be a high priority for employers," Ostbye said. "Work-based programs designed to target healthful eating and physical activity should be developed and then evaluated as part of a strategy to make all workplaces healthier and safer."

People with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above are considered obese. This study found that workers with a BMI of 40 had close to 12 workers' compensation claims per 100 workers, compared with about 6 claims per 100 in workers with a normal BMI (18.5 to 24.9).

Obese workers lost an average of almost 184 work days per 100 employees, compared with just over 14 per 100 for those with a normal BMI. Obese workers had average medical claim costs of $51,019 per 100 workers, compared with $7,503 for non-obese employees.

The lower extremities, wrists, hands, and back were the areas of the body most prone to injury among obese workers. Falls, slips and lifting were the causes of most of these injuries.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases outlines the health risks of being overweight.

SOURCE: Duke University, new release, April 23, 2007

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Social Media’s Role In Workers’ Comp Claims

By Lucy Carmel, THELAW.TV

People who file workers’ compensation claims have long faced scrutiny from insurance companies. In the past, insurance companies went as far as hiring private investigators to monitor every move the claimant made. Now, social media is proving to be a valuable tool in proving workers’ compensation fraud.

An Arkansas appeals court recently ruled that Facebook and Myspace photos could be used as evidence in a workers’ compensation lawsuit.

ABC News reports that workers’ compensation recipient Zachary Clement had his appeal denied for additional benefits following a payout for medical expenses and total-disability payments he received for more than a year. Clements was injured on the job after a refrigerator fell on him at Johnson’s Warehouse Showroom in Pine Bluff, Ark.

In Clement’s appeal for an extension of benefits, he contended that he required further medical care and compensation for pain. But photos posted on social media of Clement drinking at bars surfaced and will be used in his court case.

So, is using third-party evidence in workers’ compensation cases really anything new?

“Before social media became prevalent, employers and insurance companies had third parties conducting surveillance on injured workers,” says David Nomberg, P.A., and partner at The Nomberg Law Firm in Birmingham, Ala.

Now that employees are on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, the defense finds plaintiffs online to see what they’re saying and doing.

Old-school surveillance simply lives on in a new online form.

Social media could even make the days of investigators sitting in a car outside injured workers’ home, filming their every move, obsolete.

Whether evidence comes from the real world or the virtual world, it has to be admissible in court. Judges determine if surveillance video or Facebook posts can be used by the defense against the plaintiff.

Reputation management is crucial

“In a workers’ comp case, a client’s credibility is probably as, if not more, important than anything else in the whole case,” says Nomberg. “If the judge doesn’t believe you, you don’t have a chance.”

With a plaintiff’s reputation at stake, attorneys of defendants often bring character of the claimant under fire.

For a case in point, one of Nomberg’s workers’ compensation clients took to her Facebook page just days before her deposition, commenting about ‘taking down’ her employer. The plaintiff had posted three separate entries about her pending case. Though the comments were deleted, the damage had been done.

“The horse was out of the barn,” says Bernard Nomberg, P.A., and partner at his namesake law firm. “It factored into her case and hurt her monetarily.” The client could have potentially walked away with more compensation had it not been for her Facebook rant.

Of course, evidence gathered by the defense can be discredited when it’s inaccurate. In a separate case, Nomberg recalls video footage from the defense of someone they thought was his client riding a motorcycle, when it was, in fact, his client’s daughter.

Social media: Setting a new precedent?

Decisions to use social media evidence in cases such as Clement’s in Arkansas may be cited in future lawsuits — including workers’ compensation cases and any other types of litigation.

But ultimately, each state has unique laws, and cases will be governed accordingly.

And how far will defendants go to scrape social media evidence?

“We’re starting to see requests from the defense and from employers in litigation asking for social media account names and passwords,” says Bernard.

The Nomberg’s say a judge has yet compelled them to comply with these requests, but they see it happening someday. “We object to it as an invasion of privacy, as burdensome, and as not being relevant.”

Though this advice may be too little too late for Clement in Arkansas, “A good rule of thumb for anyone involved in a lawsuit is to always assume you’re being surveilled”, says Bernard. Adds David, “We always tell our clients to be mindful of their activities because they’re being watched.”

Injured employees and workers’ compensation claimants are still free to live their lives, just within their physician’s restrictions. And they don’t have to log off of their social media accounts, but they shouldn’t post comments, photos or statements about their case or their physical condition.

“And that’s even if you have all the privacy settings in place,” says Bernard. “Friends of friends can be enemies.”

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Monday, August 12, 2013

Workers' Comp Scams That Push the Limits - Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. Worker's Comp Blog

By Greg Hunter

Former Pinellas County, Fla., bus driver Bruce Gilbert is a full-grown man who talked like a 5-year-old, a problem his wife blamed on an "on-the-job" accident.

Over 10 years, the Gilberts collected $774,000 in workers' compensation, enough for plenty of Bruce's favorite foods.

When an insurance investigator from the Florida League of Cities asked what his favorite foods were, Bruce Gilbert responded in a childlike voice: "Pizza and spaghetti." Asked about his favorite books, he said he liked books "about animals." His wife claimed he had a regressive mental ailment that effectively gave him the mental capacity of a child of about 5.

But a private eye investigating Bruce Gilbert's disability found that the ex-bus driver, who now lives in Lake City, Fla., could not only still drive, but was also hunting and playing golf. Police in Columbia County, Fla., nabbed him on the golf course in April 2000.

"You're under arrest for workers' compensation fraud and grand theft," the arresting officer said. "Get out of the golf cart, please."

Gilbert kept up his baby talk even after being cuffed.

"They hurt me," he said. "Mommy. My mommy."

Bruce Speaks in Sentences

Thousands of Americans are getting paid for not going to work through workers' compensation scams that even by the smallest estimates cost $1 billion a year. Workers' comp fraud accounts for about 1 percent to 2 percent of all workers' comp payments, according to J. Paul Leigh, a professor of the University of California, Davis. Some of the cases show just how far people will go to collect.

Numbers are very vague for workers' comp fraud. But the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says all types of insurance fraud cost the average American household about $950 a year.

When Bruce Gilbert was arrested, so was his wife, Alice. While the Gilberts were alone in the police car, they didn't know investigators had left an audiotape recorder running. As the tape turned, Bruce's vocabulary suddenly expanded.

"Workmen's compensation — those bas-----," he said. His wife suggested he try to fake another injury.

"I want you to have a collapse," she said.

Rather than jail time, the Gilberts were each placed on 15 years' probation and ordered to pay back their ill-gotten gains of $774,000.

Money for Nothing

Millions of Americans claim on-the-job injuries every year, but not all are telling the truth.

Timothy Bernard made a deal in Lowell, Mass., after the evidence against him literally fell from the sky. He was caught on videotape while skyboarding during the same period he claimed to have disabling leg and back injuries. He had to give back $3,000 in workers comp benefits and was given two years probation.

Truck driver Crystal Burrill got caught horsing around in California while she supposedly had spine and neck injuries. A videotape of her taking a spill at a rodeo event forced her to admit she'd committed perjury and lied to get benefits. She got probation and paid back $1,500.

Jim Quiggle of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says people have offered numerous excuses when it comes to workers' comp.

"The number one reason that people are committing phony workers' comp claims is the economy," Quiggle said.

Mark O'Brien, director of business development at Claims Resource Inc., a Florida-based investigation firm, says some workers don't give it too much thought.

"They can be your average person just thinking that it's an easy way for them to make some money," O'Brien said.

"Do they realize what kind of a crime they're committing? I don't think they think about it," he said.

From Bad Shoulder to a Wrestling Ring

Leroy Howard of St. Petersburg, Fla., hurt his shoulder moving heavy furniture and received about $5,000 in workers' comp.

But private investigator Mike Martof found the 6-foot-2, 250-pound man working in the ring as a professional wrestler known as "The Navy Seal." The Seal was no match for the private eye's video camera, which revealed that Howard's "injury" did not appear to be hindering his performance.

"Not at all," Martof said. "Not whatsoever."

When speaking to an ABCNEWS correspondent, Howard tried to explain himself.

"What I did was wrong, but I didn't see it as being totally wrong," he said.

But when Howard fought the law, the law won.

He made a plea deal after being charged with workers' comp fraud and grand theft in connection with work he was doing without reporting it.

He pleaded guilty, got probation and agreed to make good on the money.

No Money-Back Guarantees

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says that when there is no prosecution of workers and no restitution, there's no deterrent for scammers, who end up keeping whatever they can get away with.

Employees aren't the only ones who commit workers' comp fraud. Some employers also do it sometimes by understating the number of workers they have on the payroll in order to get away with paying lower premiums.

According to one national study by CAIF, the state of Florida leads the nation in convictions for insurance fraud. The scammers are usually ordered to pay the money back. But collecting it isn't always that easy.

Officials in Florida say the Gilberts have paid back only about $4,000 of the $774,000 they were ordered to return.

When Good Morning America knocked on the Gilberts' door and asked about the money, Alice Gilbert slammed the door and said, "Go away!"

Meanwhile, Howard, the wrestler, said getting caught actually helped him focus on a new direction. He is in college and looks forward to life outside the ring.

Original Article

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Friday, August 9, 2013

Sonic Worker in Houston Denied Comp Claim After Robber Broke His Leg

By SUSANNA KIM (@skimm)

Feb. 27, 2013

An employee of a Sonic drive-in restaurant in the Houston area claims he was denied health coverage for a broken leg he received when the restaurant was robbed.Michael Lartique Wayne Jr., 25, worked for Sonic for two and a half years when the restaurant in Humble, Texas, was robbed by two men last month.

Lartique Wayne said one of the robbers pulled his leg through a door to keep him from moving to protect a co-worker.

"I heard was a pop, and the next thing I know my leg was just swelling," Lartique told ABC's KTRK station in Houston.The robbers got away with $200 in cash and left him with a broken femur, which may need surgery. The problem is Lartique Wayne doesn't have health insurance and Sonic has opted out of the state's workers comp plan, KTRK reported.

In the meantime, Lartique Wayne is stuck in a cast and he doesn't have an income. "While not possible under the plan, our franchisee, because they care about their employees, is open to paying medical bills for Michael," said Patrick Lenow, vice president over public relations at Sonic, in a statement. "Repeated calls to speak with Michael, to assist in the investigation, have not been returned. Michael has retained an attorney and this may be why he has not communicated with the franchisee. We continue to have hope that this can be resolved."

Sonic said the company has been trying to reach him but he has not returned calls. Lartique Wayne said he hasn't heard from the company since the week after the robbery, and his mother may have spoken with an attorney.

He said he wasn't under the influence when the robbery took place and he had nothing to do with it.Through Sonic's workers comp plan, Lartique Wayne's claim was denied because he failed a mandatory drug screen. He said he smoked marijuana a few days before the robbery, and that showed up in a mandated drug test after the robbery took place.

He said he can't put pressure on his leg, which still causes him pain.

"I'm trying to get my leg working to look for a better job," he said.

When asked what kind of job he was looking for, he said "something that's not fast food."

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Thursday, August 8, 2013

S. Dakota Workers' Comp Claim for Mom Slain on Job Tests Law

The night after being served with divorce papers, Steven Tassler
shot and killed his wife, Julie Tassler, while she was taking her
15 minute-break in the parking lot of the bank processing center
where she worked, before taking his own life.

Now, the South Dakota Supreme Court is considering whether her death on Christmas Eve 2008 qualfies for workers' compensation that would go to the couple's 11-year-old and 9-year-old children.

The case, which is on appeal after the District Court and the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation ruled against the family, hangs on the family attorney's ability to prove that Tassler would have not been shot to death if she hadn't been at work. On behalf of her estate, Julie Tassler's father, Ronald Voeller, is suing British-owned HSBC, his daughter's former employer in Sioux Falls, as well as AIG, which insures the bank for workers' compensation costs.

If the court grants the appeal, Tassler's children would be entitled to collect two-thirds of their mother's average weekly wage until they turn 18, as well as the $10,000 for her funeral and burial, the family's attorney, Dean Nasser, said. If they decided to go to college, they would receive her compensation until they turned 22, he said. Voeller, their grandfather, declined to comment. The case is unique for South Dakota because it rests on "a personal motive being imported into the workplace and causing injury," Nasser said. Although Steven Tassler, 47, had the keys to both Tassler's car and house, he would have never killed her in front of her children, Nasser said.

Nasser said that bacause Tassler was at HSBC and her husband, Steven, knew her work schedule, he could predict "exactly where and when she would be vulnerable," he said. In order for an individual to be granted workers' compensation in South Dakota because of injury, the injury needs to "arise out of" the employment. The question in this case is whether Tassler's being at work allowed her husband to kill her."This would set a precedent," he said. He said Steven Tassler knew that his wife, who was a smoker, usually spent her short breaks in her car, making phone calls, in the HSBC parking lot.

"Our evidence -- and it was not refuted -- showed [Tassler's murder] couldn't have happened anywhere else," Nasser said. "He wouldn't have access to her under the circumstances he needed. He's not going to do this in front of the children." An administrative law judge ruled that HSBC "did not exacerbate or contribute to the assault," but wrote in his 2011 decision that the South Dakota Supreme Court "has not dealt directly with the issue of whether injuries sustained as the result of a domestic assault arise out of the employment." But attorneys for HSBC say Tassler's being at work has no connection with her slaying, and the employer should not have to pay her estate workers' compensation. "Providing a place where Steven [Tassler] could carry out his murder is not a sufficient causal connection that the employment facilitated the assault," HSBC's attorney Eric DeNure told the South Dakota Supreme Court Tuesday. DeNure did not respond to a request for comment. It's unclear when the court will make its ruling. Nasser said he did not know how much Tassler earned, but said the amount that her children would collect from her workers' compensation if the appeal is granted would take some burden off Tassler's parents, who became their guardians after the deaths. "The kids need whatever support they can get," Nasser said. "They have lost immeasurably." It could take months for the state Supreme Court to reach a decision, Nasser said.

By ALEXIS SHAW (@ashaw109) March 22, 2013

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Court: No Workers' Comp in Drunk Dockworker Case

By NIGEL DUARA Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. August 2, 2013 (AP)

A federal appeals court says an Oregon longshoreman who got drunk on the job, urinated while standing on a dock and then fell 6 feet onto concrete should not get workers' compensation benefits for his injuries.

Gary Schwirse drank at least nine beers and half-pint of whiskey on Jan. 8, 2006. While standing on a dock, he urinated and fell over a railing. At the hospital, he registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.25 percent.

Schwirse sued for workers' compensation benefits and at first was victorious, when an administrative law judge ruled that workplace hazards had been a factor in his fall. But the judge later reversed his ruling when Schwirse backed off a claim that he tripped over an orange cone.

The worker appealed it to U.S. District Court, where he lost, and the case landed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied a petition for a review of claims this week. The court said his injuries were due solely to intoxication and his employers could not be held responsible.

Schwirse later tried to argue that the very concrete onto which he fell, and not his intoxication, was responsible for his injuries. That argument also lost.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge N. Randy Smith wrote in the opinion that if intoxication was the reason for the fall, then intoxication was also the reason for the injury.

Schwirse's Sunday morning began like this: He drank two beers before 8 a.m. and three beers once he got to work. At noon, he had another four or five beers, then started in on a pint of whiskey, of which he drank about half. At 4:30 p.m., when his shift collecting cones and directing trucks was over, he walked to a railing at the dock to urinate.

He fell up and over the rail onto a concrete and steel ledge. He suffered a cut to his right temple.

The Marine Terminals Corp. refused to pay his benefits, arguing that his intoxication was the sole cause of his injury. Schwirse then gave conflicting stories as to what happened that day.

At his first hearing before an administrative law judge, Schwirse said two coworkers told him he tripped over an orange cone. That testimony conflicted with a previous deposition in which he said he himself remembered tripping over the cone.

The judge initially awarded Schwirse benefits. The case bounced between the administrative law judge and the Benefits Review Board, which eventually ruled against the worker.

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Seeks Workers’ Comp

By Russell Goldman
@GoldmanRussell
Follow on Twitter

Jul 26, 2013 5:42pm

A former University of California, Davis police officer who was fired after pepper spraying a group of students staging a protest in 2011, and whose actions went viral on the internet, is seeking workers’ compensation settlement, claiming the incident left him psychologically injured.

John Pike was fired in July 2012, following an internal affairs investigation regarding his actions at a November protest on the campus. In a video that spread across the Internet, Pike can be seen aiming pepper spray in the faces of students sitting passively protesting tuition increases and in solidarity with the Occupy movement.

Pike has a settlement hearing scheduled for Aug. 13, according to the Department of Industrial Relations website.

His claim pertains to a “nervous system – psychiatric” injury according to department documents published online.

UC Davis officials confirmed Pike had filed a claim. “The university is required to follow the worker’s compensation process. We are not in agreement with the benefits being claimed,” said Andy Fell, a university spokesman.

Pike reportedly collected a pension for the years he worked at the school, despite being fired. According to a report in the Davis Enterprise, the police lieutenant earned an annual salary of $121,680 before his dismissal. His lawyer Jason Marcus would not comment on the case or indicate the size of the benefit Pike is seeking.

Original Article

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Friday, August 2, 2013

A key decision in football cases was decided by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB)

Posted By: Harvey Brown

July 1, 2013

The applicant was a professional football player. The applicant resided in Florida. He signed a professional football contract with New Orleans outside of the State of California. While employed with New Orleans he played 5 of his 32 games in the State of California. He also played for the Bengals and played 1 of 16 games in California. He filed a cumulative trauma case in California, after retirement.

The Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) found the applicant suffered a cumulative trauma and awarded the applicant a 40 percent disability. The team appealed.

The WCAB found the applicant and the employer are exempt from California law where the applicant was hired outside the state and under the following conditions: The applicant temporarily works in California, the employer provided workers’ compensation coverage in another state (here it was Ohio), if the other state recognizes California’s extraterritorial provisions, if the other state exempts California from coverage of California’s workers’ compensation laws.

This was the case here, thus California did not have to pay benefits.

Case: Carrroll V. Cincinatti Bengals

Read original story here

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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