Category: Workers’ Comp Insurance Adjusters

Not long ago, we wrote about how Sedgwick CMS’s unreasonable delays in delivering treatment to an injured worker killed him.  Well, they’ve recently agreed to a $1,129,600 settlement in response to the allegations brought by the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board for labor code violations stemming from Sedgwick’s utilization review practices. What is utilization review,  … Read more

How many times could a company with a homegrown, wholesome name like Ralph’s Grocery Co. turn a blind eye to the medical needs of an injured employee? According to the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals board, 11 is the lucky number. The trouble began in December 2003, when Charles Romano sustained an injury to his left  … Read more

Here is the story of one man, his company, and a rather unscrupulous claims adjuster. Kevin Miles, the sole owner and manager of Nebo Ventures, LLC, made his living helping various companies obtain and fulfill contracts with both state and local governments. In 2003, he was contracted by a larger company (formerly known as NovaPro,  … Read more

A Cuyahoga County judge has awarded nearly $860 million in restitution to a group of Ohio employers involved in a class-action lawsuit that began in 2007. The suit claimed that the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation, which provides worker’s compensation benefits to about two-thirds of Ohio’s workforce, overcharged the more than 270,000 employers for worker’s compensation  … Read more

If you were at Harold’s Chicken & Ice Bar last night about midnight, you might have heard me perform Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” at karaoke night.  It sounded exactly like this, in fact: I chose this song because 1) it’s underrepresented on karaoke nights and 2) it’s relevant to my law practice. The latter is  … Read more

I have a client whose de facto husband–with whom she had two sons–died in a roofing accident.  Under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act, the sons can receive the workers’ compensation benefits at the weekly rate to which he would be entitled had he lived (2/3 his average weekly wage up to the $525 per week  … Read more

In the midst of a workers’ comp case, most insurance companies will use whatever they can get their hands on to protect their assets—including social media. Although a legal precedent has not been set, some courts have allowed the use of photos and personal information posted to social media sites as evidence for a plaintiff’s condition, or  … Read more

Ready Mix USA can testify that one of the quickest ways to lose a workers’ comp case is to ignore a notice sent by the Georgia Courts. After failing to show for a worker’s compensation hearing for one of their employees, Terrell B. Ross, both Ready Mix and their insurance company, Liberty Mutual, found themselves  … Read more

Olga Pierce, Jeff Larson, and Michael Grabell of ProPublica, a non-profit organization that provides high-quality, investigative journalism, brought some disturbing facts about temporary work to light in an article titled “Temporary Work, Lasting Harm.” According to ProPublica’s analysis of workers’ compensation claims across the United States, temp workers in high-risk states like California and Florida  … Read more

Well, yes.  And here’s an example… On October 26, 2010, Martha Ayers was injured on the job. Immediately after the injury, Ms. Ayers officially reported its occurrence. The next day, her employer, Heritage Healthcare of Toccoa, fired her unceremoniously and denied her request for disability benefits. Undeterred, Ms. Ayers went on to file a request  … Read more