workplace injury News

Work Comp Defense Attorneys Worry Ga. Courts Becoming Too Worker Friendly

After three major Georgia appeals court decisions have gone against employers in the last five years, some insurance defense attorneys are concerned that the state’s workers’ compensation laws have become costly to insurers and businesses, despite years of rate reductions …

Appellate Court Rejects ‘Fishing Expedition’ Discovery Request to Home Depot

A Texas appellate court threw out a trial court order that approved a plaintiff’s overly broad discovery request in an employee’s personal injury lawsuit against Home Depot. A panel of the 9th Court of Appeals in Beaumont vacated a judge’s …

Cameraman Hurt on New Mexico Film Set Gets $66M in Lawsuit

A Los Angeles cameraman who suffered a spinal cord injury while on a New Mexico movie set has been awarded more than $66 million in a lawsuit, among the largest settlements in the state’s history, a news outlet reported. The …

Workplace Hazards Nets Illinois Truck Repair Company $326,000 in Fines

A 48-year-old worker entered a tanker-trailer in Lemont, Illinois, to inspect it as part of an annual U.S. Department of Transportation requirement and was overcome from exposure to bleach and chlorine gas. The worker was found unconscious in the tanker-trailer, …

Employer Must Face Worker’s Lawsuit Over Husband’s COVID Death, Calif. Court Rules

A California candymaker must face a lawsuit by an employee who says she caught COVID-19 at work and gave it to her husband, resulting in his death, a state appeals court held on Tuesday, upholding what appeared to be the …

Long Trend of Declining Workplace Accident Rate Stalls in 2018

The workplace injury rate for private-sector workers has been dropping year after year for decades. But 2018 was not one of those years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that the incidence rate of nonfatal injuries and …

Rehab Patients’ Unpaid Work for Big Companies Likely Illegal

A nationally renowned drug rehab program in Texas and Louisiana has sent patients struggling with addiction to work for free for some of the biggest companies in America, likely in violation of federal labor law. The Cenikor Foundation has dispatched …

Jury Awards $17M to California Man Who Lost Leg in Forklift Accident

A Riverside Superior Court jury awarded Steven Meier $17 million after he had his right leg amputated below the knee due to being run over by a forklift in October 2013. Meier, a security guard employed by Securitas Security Services, …

Ohio Senate Drops Plan on Workers’ Comp Benefits for Undocumented Workers

The Ohio Senate has rejected a House budget provision that would deny injury benefits to workers living in the U.S. illegally. The Columbus Dispatch reports Sen. Jay Hottinger, a Newark Republican, said after a hearing Tuesday that the provision is …

Construction Firm CEO Arrested in Carpenter’s Death at Work Site

Authorities have arrested the CEO of a construction company in the death of a carpenter who was buried alive by a dirt wall at a Milpitas’ construction site. The San Jose Mercury News reports Richard Liu, CEO of US-Sino Investment, …