Tennessee Law Blog

This week seven workers were severely injured when the scaffolding they were working upon fell. I have been litigating workers' compensation cases for over 15 years, and I can't remember a year when I didn't have several cases involving people injured while working on scaffolding.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that 65% of construction workers use scaffolds frequently, so it is not surprising that some of the most common accidents at construction sites involve scaffolds. These accidents are typically the most serious in terms of injury severity, and can result from construction workers' falls from defective, improperly installed, or unreasonably safe scaffold equipment.

Because of the limitations on compensation for workers' compensation claims, it is imperative to discover the cause of these accidents. Often there are third parties that may be responsible for the employee's injuries. If a worker has permanent injuries it is important that he/she receives sufficient compensation to care for him/herself and his/her family. As such, every avenue must be explored. Of course, the best answer is for the employer to take sufficient safety precautions before the accident ever happens. Employers should ensure that the scaffolding is assembled properly, and that protective measures are in place to prevent objects from falling onto workers from scaffolds, lifts, and ladders.

For the past few years, the insurance industry has claimed that there is a medical malpractice litigation crisis in Tennessee. However, after reviewing the statistics on medical malpractice lawsuits, it appears the “crisis” is a myth. According to a recent article in the Tennessean, most medical malpractice claims closed in Tennessee last year resulted in no payment of damages to patients and their families.

The answer most advocates advance to fix the alleged “crisis” is to put caps on medical awards. When you review the statistics, however, it appears that caps would do almost nothing to affect the total costs of the system. Of the 2,827 claims that closed in 2005, 461 of them were settled without jury verdicts. Slightly more than 83 percent of the closed claims resulted in no payout. Of the jury verdict awards closed in 2005, five resulted in jury verdicts for the plaintiffs, with the judgments totaling a little more than $6 million.

Perhaps the industry should look more at the insurance industry to determine why the premiums are so high. Is the system out of control or working just fine? I realize the justice system is far from perfect, but it seems to be working in Tennessee. Claims that have no merit are dismissed. Claims that have merit are presented to a jury for a determination on an appropriate outcome.

On October 5th, tire workers in Tennessee and other areas of the country walked off the line and into the streets in protest of Goodyear Tire’s proposal to gut their wages, health care benefits and retirement packages. Goodyear responded to the ongoing strike of over 16,000 United Steelworkers members by hiring thousands of temporary employees. The fill-in workers have been keeping the factories humming, but their inexperience may prove to be more costly to drivers everywhere—and ultimately to Goodyear Tires—than providing union employees with the wages and benefits they deserve.

A formidable group of United Steelworkers and their supporters demonstrated in front of the Nashville Goodyear Auto Service Center on November 18th in effort to raise the public’s—and Goodyear’s—awareness of the danger that temporary auto workers may cause to Americans’ lives. The group cited a study done by Princeton University scholars that linked 271 deaths and more than 800 injuries to the year 2000 Firestone/Ford recall of 14.4 million tires manufactured during times of labor strife by temporary workers. In addition to getting fairly compensated for their work, the workers want to keep drivers alive by learning from the mistakes of others.

Tomorrow, December 16, the United Steelworkers are sponsoring a nationwide Goodyear Day of Action to further inform the public about Goodyear’s labor policies and the dangers associated with the thousands of tires that inexperienced laborers are manufacturing daily.

You can help keep our roads safe by joining the union members at Goodyear’s Nashville store at 405 Harding Place where they will be handing out leaflets to shoppers from 9 to 11 in the morning. Your presence there may help prevent the kind of needless deaths that took place at the hand of defective tires in 2000. Our firm will continue to educate the public about how to minimize such tragic accidents, and to help those who are victims of them get the justice they deserve.

The United Health Foundation just published their current findings about the state of Americans’ health in America’s Health Rankings™: A Call to Action for People and Their Communities. According to this annual report, nearly every state in the union is healthier than Tennessee. Coming in 47th place in a race based on several factors, Tennessee as a whole has a greater combined prevalence of obesity, smoking, infectious disease, cardiovascular deaths, infant mortality, child poverty, immunization rates, workplace deaths, and auto deaths than all states besides Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. While our state’s low health rank is due in part to unhealthy choices by people, such as smoking, many of the factors contributing to our poor health are outside of the control of individuals.

It is particularly shameful that the state of Tennessee, whose economic engine runs largely on the work of laborers, outdoes most other states in its volume of workplace deaths, many of which go unreported by the news. Just a couple weeks ago, 42-year-old Jonathon Horton died shortly after he was injured in an explosion on the job at the Rollex aluminum manufacturing plant in Jackson, Tennessee. The accident is currently under investigation, but Horton’s death is one of the many every year that contributes to Tennessee’s low health rank. His death is also one of the many occupational deaths that other states produce goods without.

Accidents like Jonathon Horton’s need to be investigated thoroughly and the responsible companies must take action to avoid such deaths in the future. But if we ever hope to have a healthy, and living, workforce and state, it is imperative that Tennessee and its industries prioritize safety in the workplace before stories like Horton’s are told. Our firm will continue to bring these cases to light.

This week we just concluded a case where a man is dying from myelogenous leukemia. Our client worked around diesel fuel for the past twenty years. It is our belief that the cancer was called by a chemical known as Benzene. Unfortunately, we have other similar cases from Benzene exposure.

Benzene is commonly used throughout the country in plastics, rubber, resins, and synthetic fabrics, as well as fuels, paints and a number of other common items. Exposure to high levels of benzene has been associated with cases of leukemia, cancer, acute myelogenous leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia, and chronic myelogenous leukemia, as well as many other types.

What is upsetting about this case and other similar cases we have is that my practice is reactive. When the family sits in my office the tragedy has occurred. I can’t undue the events; we can only seek some relief in a Court room. I am making this post to let everyone know of the dangers of benzene. Perhaps if more people know of the problems they can take precautions, stay healthy and be proactive to avoid the potential dangers of this chemical.