Tennessee Law Blog

Aluminum manufacturer Aleris International Inc. announced that it will close its alloy facility in Shelbyville, Tenn. Unfortunately, this is just another plant closing in Tennessee.

It is important to note that some of the workers who lost their jobs and have a previous workman's compensation claim may be able to re-open their case. These folks need all the help they can get and this is one area where the work comp law may give some relief.

If you have recently lost your job and had a prior worker's compensation claim in Tennessee feel free to call my office to see if your case get be reopened for more compensation.

There are many considerations in determining the value of a workman's compensation claim. One of the most crucial factors is whether the "cap" applies. The is a limit in Tennessee on an award if the employer goes back to work for the same employer. Basically, if an employee returns to work for the same employer, making the same or greater hourly wage as before the injury, then their permanent disability is limited to no more than 1.5 times your medical impairment rating. This was placed as an incentive to have an employer return the employee to work.

It is important to note, however, that there are many situations where a workers compensation case can be reopened if the employee later losses his job. This is know as a right to reconsideration under the TN comp act. There are time limits to the right. The the right to file for reconsideration of the award must be done within 200 or 400 weeks of the return to work, depending on the type of injury. For instance a back injury there is a 400 week time limit but a leg injury is only 200 weeks.

If you have recently lost your job and had a prior workers compensation settlement you need to check your right to re-open your claim. Feel free to call my office to discuss.

Asbestos. For nearly a hundred years in America, this building material and insulator has caused lung damage in construction workers, shipyard and factory workers, mechanics, electricians, and many others in American workforce. And for over three decades, asbestos attorneys have helped victims of this dangerous fiber recover monetary awards to help pay for past and ongoing medical treatment and their loss of good health.

Last week, a new legal precedent was set by Washington State Court of Appeals that would allow victims of nonworkers—such as spouses, children, and others who suffer from the asbestos fibers—to have their day in court.

The injured in this particular asbestos lawsuit was the wife of a paper mill worker who was exposed to the asbestos fibers every time she washed her husband’s uniform using, as she always had, a hand-turned wringer. She was diagnosed four years ago with mesothelioma, a fatal form of lung cancer that caused almost exclusively by asbestos fibers.

Asbestos can be found in a variety of products including fire and heat insulation, automotive brakes, cements, gaskets, floor tiles, and various other products and materials. When these materials are manufactured, installed, shaped, reshaped, or repaired, fibers can come loose and remain airborne for weeks.

Mesothelioma and other asbestos-related injuries do not develop immediately. Sometimes it takes years or decades for the injuries and conditions to manifest. Many times those injured by asbestos will not remember when or how they were exposed. But now those suffering asbestos injuries from their loved one’s workplace exposure have a shot at recovering their losses.

Contact the Higgins firm if you suffer from mesothelioma or suspect other related asbestos injury. Working with experienced asbestos attorneys can help reveal when and how you or a loved one might have been exposed to asbestos fibers.

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently addressed an issue that has been the source of significant confusion throughout the years. In general, an employee has one year to bring a workers compensation lawsuit. This time runs from the date of the injury or the last date of workers compensation benefits are provided. A difficult problem arises, however, when an employee suffers a gradual injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome or a back injury that occurs over time. The old case law said that the statute of limitations would begin to run when the employee knew or should have known they had a work related injury or the last date worked. It was very difficult to prove when an employee "should know the have a work injury."

The court has now narrowed the test. The time now begins to run based upon the last day worked doctrine. The Court believes that if the injury is so bad an employee has to miss work the should know that they have a serious work related injury. Workmans compensation is a remedial statute and the court feels this is a more forgiving law for the workers.

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.

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.

A chemical plant near Boston exploded last night. Luckily, nobody died or was seriously injured, but many fires were still burning hours after the explosion, and at least twenty nearby homes were damaged beyond repair. Closer to home, employees at the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant in East Tennessee noticed early yesterday morning that they might have a leak of radioactive cooling water inside the plant. As a protective measure, the Tennessee Valley Authority declared the possible leak an “unusual event,” the least severe federal classification for nuclear power plant problems. Concerned with the report, the superintendent of nearby Meigs Counry Schools sent his pupils home for the day. In doing so, he implemented the first nuclear-related evacuation since the 1979 accident at Three-Mile Island.

Although it was ultimately determined that this “unusual event” at the nuclear power plant was really just a miscalculation, news of the evacuation has made it everywhere from Tennessee to Australia to South Africa. Watts Bar President Mike Skaggs states in several of those news stories that there was never a danger posed to workers or community members and that the school evacuation was unnecessary. But the presence of both the school evacuation report and the Boston chemical plant explosion story in papers across the globe tells a different truth than Mr. Skaggs did: whenever you are working, learning, or living close to industries with high levels of chemical and radioactive materials, you are in a potential danger zone, and reporters all over the world are aware of this.

There are many federal regulations in place to minimize the risks associated with working and living in and near such industries, but they are not always adhered to. The most hazardous aspects of chemical and nuclear plants are the invisible effects they have inside our bodies. Invisible, that is, until cancers and other irreversible conditions take over our systems.

If you work in an industry with high levels of chemicals and/or radiation, your employer is responsible for protecting you from the associated workplace hazards. It is up to you to make sure he or she does not allow an “unusual event” to become a deadly one. If you believe that you have workplace-related health problems, do not hesitate to get the health care and legal representation you deserve.

A young worker employed by Southern Medical Disposal, a medical waste disposal facility on Cement Plant road in Nashville, died last Thursday as a result of an on-the-job accident. The 21-year-old man slipped at work and attempted to brace his fall by grabbing onto a heavy object. Rather than helping the worker stay upright, the object fell on him. The resulting internal injuries were irreparable, and the young man died.

This Tennessee man, whose name was not mentioned in news reports, was one of almost six-thousand people who died from work-related injuries in the United States in the last year. Although he is nameless to the media, his untimely death has certainly affected the many individuals who loved and called him by name.

Six-thousand dead workers are six-thousand too many, but they are just a fraction of the 4.2 million people who are injured on the job every year in the United States. They are just a fraction of the 4.2 million individuals whose very livelihoods, sense of self, and physical abilities are forever changed and, for some, destroyed, as a result of mishaps in the workplace. Employers have a responsibility to provide workman’s compensation to each of these injured people. While some companies do honor those commitments, the confusing nature of Tennessee Workers Compensation Law allows many employers to get away with inadequately providing resources for their injured employees.

If you or someone you know has been injured on the job, do not hesitate to question the quality of your compensation. There are laws in place to protect you. This is your life we are talking about.

In 2004 the Tennessee Workers Compensation act was reformed. The bulk of the reform was to lower the benefits paid to workers when they are permenantly injured. Like so many political intitiatives the public was lead to believe that peolpe were getting rich for insignificant injuries.
I have represented workers through Tennessee with regard to on the job injuries.

Under the workmans compensation act it is common for employees to receive a fraction of what they lost in wages because of life changing injuries. However, these clients never had their stories published in the news or broadcast on television. In fact, the only time my cases are picked up by the news are when we successfully obtain a large verdict. I am afraid the public will never read an article describing the modest amount of money a person receives for loosing a limb at work. In fact, in Tennesse if your arm is completely amputed you get a portion of your average pay for 200 weeks.

In addition to reducing the awards for injuries the reform act also restricted an employees access to the courts. Employees cases can take longer. They can lose the right to appeal to the court for denied benefits for significant periods of time. I admit that the Tennessee Comp system was far from perfect before the "reform" but removing benefits from our workers was certainly a step in the wrong direction.