Articles Tagged with injury

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Blackwell Law Firm: Alabama Accident & Injury LawyersI’ve written several past articles about Huntsville area road construction and safety. With the tremendous growth in our area, construction zone safety is a big issue. Over the next few years, we will continue to see major road construction on some of our main highways including Interstate 565, Highway 72 and Highway 53. These projects are needed but will impact traffic.

Since road construction safety is a major issue in the Tennessee Valley, I thought I would briefly mention a AAA research article I read this week. The article is titled Attention Grabbing:  Helping Motorists Spot Roadside Workers. One quote from the article really caught my attention:

Of those surveyed, 60% had experienced a near miss working at the roadside, while an astonishing 15% had survived being hit by a passing vehicle.

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Huntsville Workers Compensation AttorneysAccording to the new Amazon CEO, the company’s “injury rates are sometimes misunderstood.” I guess that’s his “spin” on the high numbers. In modern society, “I’m just misunderstood” seems to be the first defense for people who do NOT want accountability for their bad or dangerous decisions!

The Amazon CEO’s letter reminds me of a construction injury case I worked several years ago. I represented a steel worker who suffered disabling injuries in a worksite fall on a Huntsville project. The contractor did nothing for safety — No real safety plan. No real safety meetings. No real safety equipment. At trial, the construction company’s executive claimed his company was safe and my case was just a “misunderstanding” of their safety culture. The executive then bragged from the witness stand about a safety award the company won (and proudly displayed on its website). Here’s the problem with their so-called award — It was a complete spin. They had multiple accidents and even deaths on their worksites. The award only counted project managers. It did not count the workers doing the real (and dangerous) jobs. It was a fake award. If any “misunderstanding” existed, it was because the company was trying to spin its safety failures. Fortunately, the truth came out in our trial. We were able to hold the company accountable for all our client’s personal injuries and damages.

Is safety a real concern or not? Do some companies manipulate the numbers to lie about their safety record? Are these companies simply “misunderstood” as Amazon’s CEO claims? What’s the real truth?

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Huntsville Workers Compensation LawyersI talk to injured workers in Alabama every day. If you are hurt on the job, you are likely entitled to work comp benefits. Those benefits should provide needed medical care and compensation. Too often, they do not. Alabama law is very unfair. Injured workers face many problems.

I could write a book discussing the many ways our work comp laws are unfair to injured workers. I have discussed many of those issues in prior articles on this blog. Today, I want to focus on five early mistakes injured workers make that can harm their claims.

The Worker Does NOT Report The Accident (IN WRITING) In A Timely Manner

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Through the years, I’ve written numerous articles discussing ways insurance adjusters work to decrease or diminish the value of your claim. If you are looking for a specific topic, I encourage you to search the blog archives. We’ve addressed many accident and injury topics. If you cannot locate an answer to your questions, let us know. We are happy to discuss your issues.

Below, I’ve attached a recent slideshow detailing three simple tricks insurance adjusters use. The slideshow focuses on Alabama car accident injury claims. However, adjusters use many of the same tricks in workers’ compensation claims.

Here is our slideshow:

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Protect Alabama Workers From Occupational InjuryA flash of light. A clap of thunder. Lightning strikes a construction worker in Athens. While the worker lived, he is now disabled. He can no longer work or support his family. Can he recover Alabama workers’ compensation benefits for his disabling injury?

This is the issue faced by a recent client of mine. The worker survived only because two co-workers performed CPR until paramedics arrived. His physical injuries and rehabilitation were only part of the nightmare. When hospital personnel contacted the work comp insurance company, the adjuster immediately denied the claim on the basis it was an “act of God.” Think about the worker’s family. They stayed at his bedside for weeks not knowing whether he would live or how they would pay for his care. But, this injury SHOULD have been covered by work comp in this case.

Is lightning a work-related hazard? The short answer is that in the case of this outdoor construction worker struck while helping build the new Athens High School, it was. We were able to get work comp benefits for him. But, it took a fight to get him the workers’ compensation benefits he deserved. In most cases, the answer depends on the job.

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In May 2020, I wrote a post that asked: Does vaping increase the risk of coronavirus? In that post I discussed emerging research indicating vaping might actually worsen medical problems from Covid-19.

Scientists continue to explore connections between vaping and the coronavirus. Local television channel WZDX recently aired a report on this issue. I want to continue updating my initial post as new research is discussed:

https://youtu.be/wWjyMEdHdq4

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Alabama Accident & Injury LawyersIf you suffer a work-related illness or injury in Alabama, you should be covered by our work comp laws. Should be! Yet, the numerous limitations, hurdles and injustices in our current system leave many employees without proper benefits. One issue where workers’ compensation neglects many injured workers — Mental or Psychological Care. Several practical and legal barriers exist to psychological care.

Are Mental Injuries Covered Under Current Alabama Workers’ Compensation Law?

Let’s start with the issue of coverage. Are psychological injuries covered? The answer is, yes, with a big caveat. Yes, but! To recover for mental or psychological injuries under current law, the worker must have suffered an actual physical injury that proximately caused the psychological injury. I know, that’s a long answer.

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Untitled-design-3-300x300In recent weeks, far fewer cars traveled Alabama roads and highways. With the coronavirus, many people temporarily sheltered at home. Less traffic means less driver frustration and anger on our roads. Yet, we still face road rage incidents. Those events are likely to increase as people resume the hustle and bustle of work and life.

While reading a recent local headline, I decided to write on the topic. The headline read:

Huntsville Woman Arrested After Running Over Man With Car

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Several months ago, I wrote a post discussing fire ant attacks in Alabama nursing facilities. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities should be safe places for our elderly. Yet, over the last decade, fire ants have injured and killed elderly residents in numerous facilities across the southeastern United States.

Recently, three nursing home employees in Alabama were criminally convicted for elder abuse following a vicious fire ant attack on an elderly patient. That attack made the news but so many others go unreported.

A few years ago, we worked on a case involving a vicious fire ant attack at an assisted living facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The injuries were devastating to a sweet elderly patient and her family.

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Alabama Accident & Injury LawyersWorkers at meat and poultry plants suffer some of the highest rates of occupational injury. In his 1906 book, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair wrote of the occupational dangers within Chicago’s meat processing plants. A hundred years later, food processing plants still function as if human labor and lives are expendable.

Chicago is famous for the meat-packing industry. In Alabama, these plants are typically chicken processing plants. They are places that employ people at low wages and expose them to non-stop processes. You don’t need me to tell you that many of these plants have a shameful history of workplace injuries and deaths. The numerous news stories already tell that history. Too many of these plants view people as cheap and expendable labor. But, that’s NOT how we should value human lives.

Over the last twenty years, I’ve represented numerous workers injured in Alabama poultry plants. Shoulder, arm and hand injuries are rampant. The assembly line moves too fast for any human to work long-term without injury. Yet, it’s more than just rapid assembly line injuries. The lack of safety concern also produces many injuries from falls, forklifts, and heavy lifting without proper equipment.

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