fbpx

Insurance Carrier Fraud

By: Douglas A. Williams

You’ve probably heard stories about people who have received workers’ compensation benefits but aren’t really injured.  Local news programs sometimes report such stories.  Certainly, workers’ compensation insurance companies do everything in their power to create the perception that all recipients of workers’ compensation benefits are lazy, shiftless cheats who are out to defraud the system.  It is certainly true that some people do try cheat the system.  Such people are justifiably condemned as they bring suspicion on the overwhelming majority of injured workers who have legitimate injuries.  These workers, as well as their families, have suffered immensely – both physically and mentally.  Having often endured extensive medical treatment, the loss of a job, and great economic hardship, it is the ultimate insult to question their integrity.   

What is less publicized and less well-known is that, sometimes, workers’ compensation insurance carriers try to cheat the system.  Below is a link to an article published in Courthouse News Service.  This article documents a recent class action suit filed in California against several different workers’ compensation insurance carriers, one law firm, and a number of individuals.  In the law suit, Hector Casillas, an injured worker in California, alleged that workers’ compensation insurance companies hacked into a website utilized by the law firm who represented him and stole his confidential information as well as the information of thousands of other individuals.   Casillas further claims that the confidential information that was stolen was used by the insurance carriers to gain a litigation advantage. 

It’s important to note that Casillas’s allegations haven’t yet been proven.  Nonetheless, the case serves as a poignant reminder that insurance companies are constantly striving to get an upper hand against injured workers. 

VIEW THE ARTICLE HERE

SPCA official, accused of bigoted texts, quits

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

By Melanie Burney, Inquirer Staff Writer

The head of the Monmouth County, N.J., branch of the SPCA has resigned amid allegations that he sent racist, sexist, and homophobic text messages to employees.

Victor “Buddy” Amato is accused of disparaging women, African Americans, Jewish people, and gays in dozens of messages, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Superior Court in Freehold.

The lawsuit was filed by Sue DesMarais of Jackson, an animal-cruelty investigator, who says she lost her job when she complained to her superiors about the text messages.

Shortly after she was hired by Amato in August, DesMarais “began receiving humiliating and offensive hate messages which were sent to an entire group of subordinate employees” by Amato, the lawsuit charges.

Amato resigned late Wednesday as the chief animal-welfare law enforcement officer, hours after reports about the lawsuit. He did not respond to calls to his home Thursday.

In an interview with the Asbury Park Press, Amato said the messages were meant to be private.

“They were just a bunch of jokes,” Amato said. “Jokes going back and forth between a bunch of the guys.”

Among the allegedly messages sent was one that compared Michelle Obama and other blacks to primates. There were also “degrading and derogatory statements” about homosexuals, Kwanzaa, and alleged police brutality, the lawsuit says

A message about the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., referred to the…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Shelby County teen’s alleged murder sparks $10 million wrongful death lawsuit

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

The alleged murder of Cameron McGlothan, 19, in 2013 has sparked a lawsuit against a security company and the developer of a north Shelby County subdivision. 

The family of a teen who was allegedly murdered in March 2013 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a security company and developer of a north Shelby County subdivision for allowing the two suspects in the case to enter the gated community and abduct the victim.

The parents of Cameron McGlothan filed a lawsuit in Shelby County Circuit Court last Friday that seeks $10 million for the wrongful death of their son against Walden Security Inc. and Eddleman Properties Inc.

In the lawsuit, Dawn and Ernest McGlothan accuse the two companies of failing to follow policies and procedures by allowing the two men, who were later charged with murder in the case, to enter the Highland Lakes subdivision on Highway 41 and abduct the 19-year-old.

The lawsuit alleges the guard station operated by Walden at Highland Lakes’ entrance did not get proper identification from Justin Hamilton and Demarcus Samuels, both of whom have been charged with capital murder in the case.

The two suspects provided incorrect names to guards while video equipment at the gate did not accurately record their vehicle’s tag number, which caused a delay in their identification, according to the lawsuit.

The McGlothans accuse the companies of breach of contract, negligence, wrongful death and negligent training and supervision, according to the lawsuit filed…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Mahwah man can pursue suit against Finkelstein & Partners law firm

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

Mahwah man can pursue suit against Finkelstein & Partners law firm

By KATHLEEN LYNN

STAFF WRITER | The Record

* Cites overcharges in slip-and-fall case

A Mahwah man’s lawsuit claiming that his lawyers overcharged him in a personal-injury case can move forward under a recent court ruling — though one of the original defendants, the well-known law firm Jacoby & Meyers, has been let off the hook.

Jeffrey Harding of Mahwah and his 80-year-old mother, Nancy Harding of Rockland County, hired lawyers with ties to Jacoby & Meyers, a New York company known for its television commercials, to file two slip-and-fall lawsuits on their behalf.

Nancy Harding hired Finkelstein & Partners of Newburgh, N.Y., after she suffered an injury at a Suffern, N.Y., tile business, and Jeffrey Harding, who had a separate case, hired Andrew Finkelstein of Finkelstein & Partners.

The Finkelstein firm shares many office locations and staff with Jacoby & Meyers, according to a lawsuit filed by the Hardings after their slip-and-fall cases were settled.

In their lawsuit, both Nancy and Jeffrey Harding claimed that the lawyers overcharged them by adding fees for services from a company, Total Trial Solutions, which was partly owned by their lawyers. Those fees were in addition to the regular attorneys’ fees of 33 percent of the amount recovered, the Hardings said in their lawsuit, which named Jacoby & Meyers, Finkelstein & Partners, Total Trial Solutions, and…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Newark watershed agency fights to keep class-action lawsuit in legal limbo

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

NEWARK — Two former employees of the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corp. filed a class-action lawsuit last year to recover money allegedly stolen from the now-defunct agency.
But after the agency’s trustees filed for bankruptcy in January, that lawsuit was put on hold.
Now the former employees’ attorney is asking a federal bankruptcy judge to partially lift the stay on the lawsuit and allow certain claims to proceed on behalf of Newark residents.
“I want to go forward with the lawsuit,” said David Hoffman, the attorney representing the former employees. “I’m in limbo.”
But Daniel Stolz, an attorney representing the corporation in the bankruptcy case, argued the stay must remain in place, because the agency should be the one to pursue such litigation, not Hoffman.
“The appropriate thing is for the watershed to bring those claims and we’ve always intended to bring those claims,” said Stolz, adding that the corporation should serve that role “because the agency is the one that was directly injured.”
The litigation pursued by the agency would include negligence claims against law firms that had represented the agency and claims against people who wrongfully took money from the corporation, according to Stolz.
A hearing on Hoffman’s motion to partially vacate the stay is scheduled for March 31 before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Vincent…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Staten Island Judge Allows Suit on Teacher Tenure to Proceed

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

Opponents of New York State’s teacher tenure laws won a small but important victory on Thursday, when a Staten Island judge allowed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of those rules to move forward.

This decision comes as battles over the way teachers are hired, fired and evaluated swirl through courtrooms and statehouses across the country. In January, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo began a battle of his own with teachers’ unions, proposing a change to evaluations that would tie teacher performance ratings more closely with state tests.

The tenure lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court on Staten Island, was brought against the state last year on behalf of about a dozen families. The suit — originally two lawsuits, which have been combined — contends that teacher tenure and discipline policies deprive children of their right to a “sound basic education,” essentially by making it too difficult to fire bad teachers.

On Thursday, Justice Philip G. Minardo denied a motion to dismiss that case, filed by New York state, city and union officials, allowing the suit to continue.

“This ruling is a major victory for New Yorkers, especially for parents and students,” said Campbell Brown, founder of the Partnership for Educational Justice, a group involved in bringing the lawsuit. “New Yorkers are one step closer to having access to the data that shows the degree to which quality teaching impacts a student’s ability to succeed and…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

TALK WITH AN ATTORNEY TODAY!

We only get paid when you win, so you don’t have to worry about hourly rates or fees. That means you’ll never see a bill unless you win. Fill out the form below and you’ll hear back from us immediately.