The Raleigh News and Observer this past weekend highlighted the plight of injured workers whose employers knowingly refuse to carry workers’ compensation insurance. These businesses pocket the insurance money, and get a competitive advantage over businesses that do not carry the insurance. When their employees are injured and there is no insurance company to pay […]
Workers' Compensation
Anniversary of the Hamlet Chicken Processing Plant fire remembered
On Tuesday, September 3, 1991, a 25-foot long fryer vat ignited at Imperial Foood Product’s chicken processing plant in Hamlet, NC. Workers were unable to get out of the plant because management had locked all exits except the main entrance in order to prevent employee theft. The plant had no windows, no fire alarm, no sprinkler system, and […]
Court of Appeals decides two new workers’ compensation cases
On August 2, 2011, the NC Court of Appeals decided the case of Capps v. Southeastern Cable, in which it held that an installer of cable TV and internet services was an employee, and not an independent contractor. The Court based its decision on the conditions of the employment, and gave no weight to the […]
Valerie to serve as secretary-treasurer of NCAJ’s Workers’ Compensation Committee
Valerie has accepted the position of secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice’s Workers’ Compensation Section. The Workers’ Comp Section is focused on the rights of injured workers in North Carolina and seeks to educate and assist attorneys in their practices.
Win in Court of Appeals: Campbell v. National Pipe and Plastics
Although the employer and insurance company refused to pay for time out of work following an admitted workers’ compensation injury, the North Carolina Court of Appeals found that defendants were liable in Campbell v. National Pipe and Plastics. The Court awarded benefits for Ms. Campbell’s time out of work and for treatment for depression caused by the pain and inability to work from the […]
NC Advocates for Justice hails consensus bill
The text of the NCAJ’s post is reproduced below: RALEIGH, N.C. (May 26 , 2011) – An agreement has been reached on specific adjustments to HB 709, commonly referred to as the Workers’ Compensation Reform Bill. Parties including politicians, the NC Chamber of Commerce, the NC Advocates for Justice, the North Carolina Republican Attorneys Association, […]
Court sides with plaintiff, dismissing appeal in workers’ comp case
In Evans v. Hendrick Automotive Group, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that defendants improperly appealed a non-final decision of the Industrial Commission, and dismissing their appeal. Ms. Evans was an office manager for a Hendrick dealership in Texas. She was injured during a business trip to Charlotte, while she was walking back from an employer-sponsored dinner […]
Valerie speaks at workers’ compensation roundtable
On Friday, Valerie Johnson spoke at the 16th Annual Workers’ Comp Roundtable, a CLE put on by the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. Valerie spoke on how to protect a client’s future health insurance benefits in a workers’ compensation case, including benefits under the State Health Plan.
NC Supreme Court sends parking lot case back to Commission
The North Carolina Supreme Court has sent a tricky workers’ compensation case back the Industrial Commission for additional fact-finding. Cardwell v. Jenkins Cleaner involves a plaintiff who was injured when she slipped on some black ice three feet away from the back door to her office. Our coverage of the Court of Appeals’ split-decision in […]
NC Court of Appeals’ latest decisions on workers’ compensation
The North Carolina Court of Appeals published two opinions on workers’ compensation earlier this month. The first, Blalock v. Southeastern Materials, involved an award of attorneys’ fees as a sanction for unreasonable defense. N.C.G.S. § 97-88.1 permits the Industrial Commission to award a plaintiff the costs of his attorneys’ fees if the case had been defended without […]