North Carolina Workers' Workmen's Workman's Workerman or Workermens Compensation
Someday someone should do a sociology study on the evolution in the name of the workers' compensation system. Many folks in NC still refer to it as "workmans" compensation, and a few as "workmen's" comp. The issue has so much history that the North Carolina General Assembly included the following language in the NC Worker's Comp Act....
Can an employee receive workers' comp in NC if he was at fault in the accident?
I read an article on-line the other day describing an employee of a large laundry company who died when he fell into an industrial dryer. Readers were asked to comment on the story, and I was sadly not surprised to read a string of posts blaming the worker for his own death and questioning why workers' comp should pay. While this was not a NC workers' comp case I do hear...
Role of a lawyer in a NC workers comp case.
I frequently get asked by potential NC workers' compensation clients how much time a client can expect to spend with me versus somebody else in my office. I think lawyers need to talk to clients about every important issue in the case and not push that off on a paralegal or assistant. If you are injured on the job in North Carolina, you are already going through a lot. The...
North Carolina Workers' Compensation Laws
So, what are the sources of North Carolina workers' comp laws? There are several. First, workers' comp, or workmans comp, is a creature of statute. The North Carolina General Assembly established the system for administering the workers' comp system and tweaks it from time to time. The laws directly relating to workers' comp are found in Chapter 97 of the North Carolina...
Testimonial
I received the following recommendation from a former client yesterday. I am glad I could help her.Dear Kevin,I just wanted to send you a note to thank you for the great job you did for me. I have heard so many negative things from others about how they hire a lawyer and can never reach them. I have to say that there was never a time that I could not reach you. I know I had alot of...
What is a "rating" in a North Carolina workers' comp case?
I frequently get calls from injured NC workers asking about a "rating" so I want to take a few minutes and talk about what that means. To receive indemnity benefits for a North Carolina workers' comp claim, a worker generally has to show that he or she is not able to work. Certain injuries however are presumed to be disabling under the North Carolina Workers Compensation Act....
Employer misclassification as it affects injured NC workers and their compensation claims.
Attached at the bottom is an interesting article about employer misclassifications. Misclassification occurs when an employer designates a person who is an employer as a contractor for workers' comp purposes. Another type of misclassification is reporting workers jobs as other than what they really are in an effort to reduce workers' comp costs.Misclassification is workers'...
Will new health plan affect workers' comp in North Carolina?
The short answer is yes, but right now there is no way to know exactly how. There have been estimates that workers' compensation payments account for about 3% of the total spending on medical treatment nationwide. Congress focused on the big issues here, and to my knowledge did not specifically address workers' comp in North Carolina, or otherwise. There will certainly be...
Should I hire a lawyer in my NC workers' comp case?
I deal with the question of whether or when to hire an attorney in a workers' compensation case in North Carolina in an article on the website. But I would like to reinforce the point here. Several months ago I was contacted by a very nice gentleman, we will call him Sam, who had hurt his back while on the job in NC, and his employer was trying to settle. Sam considered...
High Unemployment Affects NC Workers' Comp Claimants
According to the N.C. Employment Security Commission, North Carolina's unemployment rate climbed to 11.1 percent in January, which is the highest in 34 years. For the first time in the North Carolina history more than 500,000 workers were unemployed.A lack of available high-quality jobs affects injured North Carolina workers in at least two ways. First, as employers...
