New York Disability Lawyer & Attorney : Turley, Redmond & Rosasco : Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk, Bronx, Staten Island

The Suffolk County Bar Association has invited me to present a Continuing Legal Education Seminar on Thursday, August 11, 2005, entitled "Malpractice Avoidance for Workers Compensation & Social Security Disability Attorneys". I will be presenting with my colleagues Vic Fusco and Dennis Chase. Lawyers who attend will earn two CLE ethics credits.

In the past year, I have testified as an expert witness in two legal malpractice cases involving workers' compensation claims. In both, the legal malpractice was clear - it was just about estimating damages. One case settled in the 7 figure range and one in the 6 figure range. Unfortunately, legal malpractice is a growing problem in the United States. Just type in a "google" search for "legal malpractice lawyer" and see how many sharks swarm. Prevention is key. Bottom Line - this would be a good one for any negligence, workers compensation or social security disability lawyer to attend. If interested, contact the Suffolk Academy of Law at 631-234-5588 to register. Hope to see you there.

• Print
• Comments

The fiery crash yesterday which killed three immigrant workers commuting in a dangerous 15 passenger van to a factory on Long Island raises interesting workers compensation legal issues. The workers who packed the van were from a Brooklyn Haitian community almost 50 miles away from bath products factory on Long Island. It is increasingly common for Long Island employers to recruit immigrant workers from the city and provide transportation. Employers simply can't find enough Long Islanders to do simple factory work at the low wages they are willing to pay. I have had cases involving Long Island employers importing workers from as far away as New Jersey.

This is where the workers compensation question comes in. Are the workers entitled to workers compensation for their injuries commuting to work? In this case, the answer could be YES. The general rule is that workers are not covered while going to or from work. However, there are exceptions. If the employee is being transported in the employer's vehicle for the benefit of the employer (i.e. to recruit and retain a stable workforce), then the workers are covered. Even if the employer in this case did not own the vehicle, but simply arranged for the transportation and subsidized the cost, the employer could be on the hook for workers compensation payments. All 15 passengers of the van suffered some injuries. As the investigation of this tragic crash unfolds, it will be interesting to find out who arranged for and paid for the workers' van service.

• Print
• Comments

The annual New York Workers Compensation Bar Association golf outing yesterday raised a record $20,000 for pediatric cancer research. Bill Turley, Vince Hannigan and Craig Rosasco led our golf contingent, while Aimee Berlin and Jaclyn Marziliano Simmons hit the tennis courts - all for a good cause. Chris Redmond, Ronna Horwitz-Bard and I handled office duty until I joined the crew in the evening for the awards ceremony.

Hats off to my fellow workers compensation lawyers Ken Larkin and Ed Romano for organizing this wonderful event, and to Summit Pharmacy for their generous contribution to help kids with cancer. Who says lawyers don't contribute to society.

• Print
• Comments

Great article on the front page of yesterday's New York Times about how Social Security is currently a lifeline for 2/3 of all Americans, and why women in particular would be hurt by the President's privatization plan. Nearly 1/3 of all Americans receiving Social Security are single women. Many were divorced late in life and left with little or no savings. Due to child rearing responsibilities, they did not have the luxury of a regular attachment to the workforce like most men. The current Social Security program made allowances for this fact. A divorced spouse was allowed to collect a portion of her former husband's Social Security, without any negative impact on the man.

However, if Social Security funds are diverted to "private accounts", will the divorced single woman get a part of her former husbands "private account"? Will the husband have anything left for himself after the divorce lawyers? Does anyone really want to risk being in poverty in their old age? Prior to Social Security, almost 40% of the elderly in the United States lived in poverty.

One of the persons profiled in the article is a former millionaire whose business failed and was hit by medical bills for his wife before she died.. He now lives largely on his monthly Social Security check. What if the stock market crashes just before you are forced to retire? Would you deplete your "private account" to prolong your wife's life? These things happen every day. Thats why we have Social Security Insurance.

• Print
• Comments

In an effort to jump start the President's stalled Social Security privatization plan, Senate Republicans are now proposing to raise the normal retirement age to 69. Those of us who represent the disabled have to watch this carefully. As both academics and those of us in the trenches will tell you, this proposal would ordinarily force more older Americans onto the disability program - thereby not fixing Social Security's solvency problem. But what if the sly Senate Republicans simultaneously make the standard for obtaining disability benefits so high that no one qualifies? They could have their cake and eat it too.

After representing hard working New Yorkers in demanding physical jobs for the last 15 years, I can tell you that most will not be able to function in their regular jobs until age 69. Sure - advances in medicine have increased life expectancy, but have they increased "work life expectancy" ? I think not, at least for those middle and working class Americans who need Social Security the most. As various proposals wend there way through Congress, keep an eagle eye on the disability benefits program. You may need it one day.

• Print
• Comments (1)

Here is a summary of the new Workers Compensation bill introduced on 6/9/05 in the State Assembly and supported by the New York State AFL-CIO. It provides a long overdue benefit increase for injured workers AND provides significant cost savings for employers. Sounds like a win/win to me!

Thanks to my partner Chris Redmond, the firm's WILG representative, for bringing to my attention the recent workers compensation benefit increase negotiated in Illinois. Chris just got back from the latest WILG Conference in Washington, DC where attorneys from others states were a lot less optimistic about real benefit increases for workers. Hopefully, New York will join Illinois and find common ground between workers and employers. I know my clients are dying economically at the current benefit level.

• Print
• Comments

Had a great time last Thursday night at the New York Social Security Bar Dinner. Along with five other attorneys and staff from my office, we got a chance to socialize and laugh with old friends and colleagues, including Richard Morris and Vic Fusco. Judge Emanuel Poverstein from the Long Island Office of Hearings & Appeals was presented with the Lester Rosen Memorial Award - the highest honor an Administrative Law Judge in the New York region can attain. In his acceptance speech, Judge Poverstein humbly described the role of a Social Security Judge: "Helping the most vulnerable in our society - the disabled". Sounds like he was a fan of the late Senator Hubert H. Humphrey.

When I started practicing Social Security Law in 1990, both Judges Poverstein and Rosen sat together in the old Hempstead Hearing Office. Prior to his untimely death, I was fortunate to have learned the law from Judge Rosen, who was then widely considered the Dean of the New York Social Security judiciary. Judge Poverstein had just transfered from his prior assignment in Arizona and he became a "Rosen-like" Judge - compassionate and scholarly with a dry sense of humor. One of his particular strengths is evaluating mental disability claims. If you have a client with a mental disability, you hope Judge Poverstein is assigned to your case. Like former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, 'he knows it when he sees it'.

• Print
• Comments

The Workers' Comp Insider, an excellent employer oriented blog for workers compensation info published by Lynch Ryan, has a great post on AIG's public relations attempts to get out from under the current scandal by using poetry. If I recite a few verses to the next AIG adjuster I talk to, I wonder how far it will get me...hmm, maybe not. As I frequently say to my partner Bill Turley, "You can't make this stuff up!"

• Print
• Comments

Here is New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's complaint alleging fraud against mega workers compensation insurance carrier AIG and its former CEO, Hank Greenberg. Thanks to Matthew Lerner and his New York Civil Law Blog for bringing it to my attention.

If the allegations are to be believed, it appears that Greenberg was a rogue CEO who would not take the legal advice of his own lawyers when they told him that AIG was defrauding the New York Workers Compensation system. If you read the complaint in detail, look at factual allegation #93. It alleges that AIG had secret "side agreements" with "customers" to disguise workers compensation premiums as auto premiums. Does this mean employers were part of a conspiracy to defraud the workers compensation system to lower their insurance rates? I wonder what the New York State Business Council has to say about this. The silence is deafening.

I've settled many claims with AIG over the years. I have always found their workers compensation adjusters tough but fair. Its a shame Greenberg has given the company a whopper of a black eye.

• Print
• Comments

Long time firm employee and New York State Licensed Workers Compensation Hearing Representative Craig Rosasco recently passed the New York Bar exam. He will soon become our firm's 11th attorney (talk about overhead!). Craig graduated from Touro Law School where he was the Student Bar Association President. At his graduation cerimonies at Lincoln Center last weekend, I had the honor of suiting up in my old St. John's doctoral robes and "hooding" my brother. Please join us in wishing him a long and honorable career before the Bar.

• Print
• Comments