Workers comp in court
- There are advantages and disadvantages to filing a workers’ compensation lawsuit as opposed to making a workers’ compensation claim.
- The advantage of a workers’ compensation lawsuit is the potential to get more compensation that would not be available with a workers’ comp claim alone.
- This can include payment for pain and suffering, emotional distress, and even punitive damages
- However, It can take much more time to resolve a lawsuit and it can be harder to successfully recover compensation.
Incidents on the decline
- An annual survey in Minnesota had an estimated 3.4 OSHA-recordable, nonfatal, workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time-equivalent workers, a decrease from the estimated rate of 3.5 cases per 100 FTE workers in 2020.
- The survey estimates Minnesota had 73,800 workers with OSHA-recordable, nonfatal, workplace injuries and illnesses in 2021, compared to 76,700 estimated cases for 2020.
- The state’s workplace injury and illness rate were higher than the 2021 nationwide rate.
- There were an estimated 3,250,700 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported in private and public-sector workplaces across the county, which equates to a rate of 2.9 cases per 100 FTE workers.
Preventing trench collapses
- OSHA released tips on how to prevent deaths from trench collapses
- The agency recommended slope or bench trench walls by cutting back the trench wall at an angle inclined away from the excavation.
- OSHA said to shore trench walls by installing aluminum hydraulic or other types of supports to prevent soil movement.
- The agency also recommended shielding trench walls by using trench boxes or other types of supports to prevent soil cave-ins.
Man accused of stealing $55,000 in benefits
- An Everett, Washington, man reportedly caught remodeling homes while claiming he was too injured to work has been charged with felony theft in a workers’ compensation fraud case.
- Terry Lee Dawson, 62, is accused of stealing more than $55,000 in workers’ compensation payments over four years starting in September 2016.
- Dawson, who was doing business as Best 1 Solutions, Inc., pleaded not guilty last week to first-degree theft in Snohomish County Superior Court.
- Dawson had been receiving wage replacement payments off and on since 2003 due to a back injury he sustained while working as a carpenter.