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Are you entitled to Specific Loss Benefits?

Eric Abes on May 30, 2014

If you are an injured worker and you’ve been disabled as a result of your accident, you are probably receiving temporary total disability (TTD) benefits.  Those benefits are intended to compensate you for the wages that you’ve lost because of your injury.  TTD benefits are, by far, the most common type of benefits that are paid to injured workers in Pennsylvania.

However, there is another type of benefit available to some injured workers.  “Specific loss benefits” are payable to injured workers who have had a body part amputated or completely lost the use of a body part.  The body part at issue could be as small as part of a finger or as large as an arm or leg.  Unlike TTD benefits, specific loss benefits are NOT intended to compensate an injured worker for wages that he/she has lost.  Instead, specific loss benefits are designed to compensate the injured worker for the loss of his/her body part.  As a result, an injured worker could be entitled to a substantial sum of benefits even if that injured worker missed only a minimal time from work – or even no work at all. 

Specific loss benefits are also payable to injured workers who, as a result of their injuries, have permanent, unsightly scars on their heads, necks, or faces.  In many cases, injured workers can receive benefits for scarring years after they were injured, recovered, and returned to work.  Many injured workers even receive specific loss benefits for scars resulting from surgeries, such as cervical fusions, that were necessitated by work injuries.  

Lawsuit claims wage theft and racial slurs at Lexus of Concord

Eric Abes on May 29, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.contracostatimes.com

CONCORD — Seven former and current employees have sued an auto dealership, alleging wage theft and a hostile work environment where they were berated with racist and sexist slurs.In a lawsuit filed April 24 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the plaintiffs allege Lexus of Concord made employees pay state and federal taxes on inflated wages they weren’t paid, retaliated against employees who complained and wrongfully terminated two of them. The lawsuit further claims one defendant regularly used racial and gender epithets to describe dealership employees and customers.

The lawsuit seeks lost wages, $3 million in compensatory damages for each of the seven plaintiffs and $21 million in punitive damages.

Plaintiffs Kamal Dayekh, far left, former finance director, and Amanda Bo Denton, former internet sales manager, chat with their lawyers Charles Bonner, far right, and Karan Gill following a press conference held across Market Street from the Lexus on Concord dealership in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Seven current and former employees of Lexus on Concord have filed a $21 million lawsuit claiming wage theft among other things. The lawsuit also seeks $7 million in punitive damages against each of three mangers for maintaining a hostile work environment. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group) ( Dan Honda )

“We feel that it is just un-American to have to work in an environment that is just saturated with racist, homophobic and women-hating comments,”…

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Students bring sexual assault complaint against Columbia University

Eric Abes on May 26, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.msnbc.com

Another Ivy League school is facing a complaint over its response to sexual assault reports. A group of 23 students is filing a series of complaints against Columbia University under Title IX, the Clery Act, and Title II over allegations that the school fails in its duty to protect students who are victims of sexual assault.

The more-than-100-page complaint alleges that perpetrators of sexual assault have been allowed to remain on campus, that survivors are often discouraged from reporting assaults, that some survivors were not treated fairly because of their gender identity, and that individuals who protest against the school’s response face retaliation, among other claims.

In a statement released Thursday by a group calling itself Our Stories CU, the students behind the complaints accused Columbia of being “more willing to silence and punish survivors and their supporters than serial rapists,” and that they took action “to hold the university accountable for its deliberate mishandling of campus sexual violence and mental health,” according to a report on student-run .

News of the complaints comes on the heels of a story about a mishandled rape case at Brown wherein a student suspended for violently raping a classmate is set to return to school despite objections from his victim. While a university representative told Brown’s student paper that the school’s sexual assault policy would be discussed at a community council…

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Hermosa Beach mom wins settlement from TSA over airport breast-feeding incident

Eric Abes on May 22, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.contracostatimes.com

A Hermosa Beach woman who sued the Transportation Security Administration after she claimed officers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport harassed her four years ago over her son’s breast milk has won a tentative legal settlement against the agency, she said Tuesday.

Stacey Armato sued in federal court in Phoenix after a 2010 incident in which she asked the TSA to provide an alternate form of screening that would not expose her 7-month-old son’s breast milk to radiation. During the incident, Armato claimed in court papers, she was forced to wait in a glass enclosure for more than 40 minutes while she was “frequently harassed and abused by the TSA agents.”

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, which should become official within the next month, the TSA will take steps to retrain its officers on proper breast milk-screening procedures, Armato said. The agency also will pay her $75,000, which she plans to use for her legal fees and to donate to BreastfeedLA, a group dedicated to promoting breast-feeding across the region.

“Moms can now travel more confidently with their breast milk,” Armato said. “It’s a big day for breast-feeding moms.”

Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the TSA, declined to comment on the lawsuit. He cited current TSA policies that permit mothers to travel with breast milk in quantities greater than 3 ounces as long as “it is presented for inspection at the security checkpoint.” The…

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Wife of Villa Park man who died after swan attack files suit

Eric Abes on May 19, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.chicagotribune.com

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of a man who was attacked by a swan. (Posted on: April 17, 2014)
The wife of a Villa Park man who drowned two years ago after a swan attacked him is suing his employer and the condo complex where he tended the swans.The lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of Amy Hensley, in Cook County Circuit Court claims an attack by a swan caused or contributed to Hensley falling out of his kayak and ultimately drowning. Along with the Bay Colony Drive condo complex where he drowned, the lawsuit names Hillcrest Property Management and Hensley’s employer, North Barrington-based, Knox Swan and Dog, LLC, which places the birds in ponds as goose deterrents.

For about 10 years, Anthony Hensley, 37, a father of two, came around the Bay Colony Drive condo complex near Des Plaines regularly to tend to a pair of swans meant to keep geese and their droppings away, his family and residents told the Tribune.

On the morning of April 14, 2012, one of the swans attacked Hensley, causing his kayak to topple, according to witnesses at the time. The bird continued to lunge at him as he struggled to make it to shore before he disappeared under water, authorities said after the attack. He was pronounced dead at a hospital after dive crews scoured the 50-foot-deep pond to find him, authorities added.

Using swans to chase away geese is an effective practice, according to bird experts, because swans are larger, territorial and will live in…

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Husband of Kingfield teacher killed in crash files lawsuit

Eric Abes on May 15, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.onlinesentinel.com

Andrew Hodgins is suing Craig Gage for allegedly driving negligently when his van struck a van driven by Samantha Wright.

The husband of a Kingfield teacher who died in a head-on collision this winter is suing the driver of the van that struck his wife’s minivan.

LAWSUIT: Samantha Wright, 38, of Kingfield, was killed in January after her Dodge minivan, seen here, was hit by a van traveling toward her on Route 27 in New Vineyard. Wright’s husband, Andrew Hodgins, is suing Craig Cage, the driver of the other van.

Samantha Wright, 38, of Kingfield, was killed Jan. 6 when her van was struck by a van driven by Craig Gage, 23, of Saco.

Andrew Hodgins, Wright’s husband, filed a lawsuit against Gage, claiming he acted negligently, which resulted in the crash.

Court documents filed by Hodgins attorney’s allege that Gage was driving too fast for the poor winter conditions, was not following traffic rules, didn’t “heed the presence” of Wright’s van and “failed generally to adhere to appropriate standards of care.”

The lawsuit does not cite a specific amount of money it’s seeking, but it states Hodgins is seeking compensation for emotional distress, the loss of Wright’s companionship to him and 1-year old daughter Penelope, and money for expenses such as funeral costs, child care cost increases and the loss of Wright’s future earnings.

National Distributors, the South Portland company that owned…

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