Ronald Reagan famously said, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Government has become almost synonymous with ineptitude. So it should be no surprise that every day people are injured, killed, or sustain property damage at the hands of careless government employees. Damages available to…
Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. has consistently advised its Louisiana clients to always intervene in third-party tort suits to recover workers’ compensation benefits, as some published opinions have suggested that a workers’ compensation carrier waives its right of recovery if it does not intervene after receiving notice of suit. A recent case from the Louisiana…
Even Non-Employer Contractors Are Entitled To Exclusive Remedy Protection Exclusive remedy protection is being handed out to non-employers like candy on Halloween by courts and legislatures across the nation, and Ohio is the latest state to join the giveaway. On April 19, 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled for the first time that on construction…
Until recently, the District of Columbia workers’ compensation subrogation statute, found at § 32-1535, was silent on how or whether attorneys’ fees/costs are to be charged or apportioned when the worker files suit. When an employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier initiates an action or negotiates a settlement when it is received and assigned, because…
The Exclusive Remedy Rule is neither exclusive nor a remedy. What began as a cornerstone of the social insurance experiment known as workers’ compensation has become so riddled with leaks that employers and their insurers often give up on subrogation in order to protect themselves from liability they were never intended to bear. One of…
It actually makes very little legal sense and for all intents and purposes is fundamentally antithetical to a free market, capitalist society. Its underpinnings can be traced to Germany’s Second Reich and its Prime Minister, Otto Von Bismarck. It has ties to Marxism and Socialism and its evolution has been fueled by populism and social…
Virginia Court of Appeals Defies Trial Lawyers Association The Virginia Court of Appeals just gave a big boost in the arm to Special Arbitration of workers’ compensation liens. Article First (Compulsory Provisions) of the Special Rules and Regulations (revised January 3, 2006) states: Upon settlement of a claim or suit, signatory companies must submit any…
Ignorance of the law is no excuse – unless you’re the Nebraska Court of Appeals. On March 8, 2016, the Court, in perhaps one of the most illogical and biased decisions in many years, held that a trial court can wipe out a workers’ compensation lien for literally any reason – including the fact that…
In the 1970s, the Oklahoma Sooners’ NCAA football team successfully began implementing a new offensive system known as the “option offense.” Sooner Coach Barry Switzer has been credited by many for having perfected the use of the wishbone offense, a staple of option offenses. Forty years later, the option returned to Oklahoma, but this time…
Since 1939, § 15 has provided that a workers’ compensation carrier receives first priority recovery from a third-party settlement or judgment. In particular, it provides that “the sum recovered” in the third-party action (also defined as the “gross sum received in payment for the injury…shall be for the benefit of the insurer, unless such sum…