Center for Justice and Democracy Publishes Workers Compensation Report

Cyrus Dugger

Center for Justice and Democracy Publishes Workers Compensation Report

Taking a viewpoint in line with my previous posts on how the challenges getting access to justice faced by sick 9/11 ground zero workers are symptomatic of the larger problems of the workers compensation system:

Why the Challenges Faced by 9/11 Workers Affect Us All

9/11 & The Safety Is Too Expensive Business Model

Congress Rejects Aid For Sick 9/11 Responders: Puts Financial Safety Over

9/11 Financial Safety Over Human Safety Narrative Continues

the Center for Justice and Democracy has just released a report on workers compensation.

The report finds that workers’ compensation systems across the fifty states have been steadily degraded over time to the point where they are no longer effectively delivering justice to many injured workers.

NEW REPORT EXPOSES FAILURE OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION PROGRAMS NATIONWIDE
Finds Workers Compensation To Be a Poor Model for Other Programs

New York - A new report released today by the consumer rights group, Center for Justice & Democracy (CJ&D), finds that workers’ compensation programs throughout the country have been devastating for injured workers, leaving them to contend with an adversarial bureaucracy and inadequate benefits that render many destitute. The report, “Workers’ Compensation - A Cautionary Tale,” calls the workers’ compensation program a “colossal failure.” It also notes, “[t]he real winners are insurance companies, which continue to boast record profits as workers, benefits are declining.”

“Workers’ compensation is an unfortunate example of how a seemingly fair program can be manipulated by political forces into a nightmare for those it was originally meant to help,” said CJ&D attorney and policy analyst Amy Widman, the report’s author.

“Workers’ Compensation - A Cautionary Tale” closely analyzes the progressive deterioration of the workers’ compensation system since its inception in the early part of the last century, highlighting disturbing trends in several states. The report’s release comes shortly after the 5th Anniversary of September 11, where the plight of many clean up workers who are being denied even meager workers’ compensation benefits for their illness and injuries, illustrates many of the problems workers face in getting claims paid.

The CJ&D Report also brands workers’ compensation a “cautionary tale” about the pitfalls of administrative compensation programs that take away people’s right to trial by jury, such as proposed “health courts” for medical malpractice victims. Citing problems with workers’ compensation, the CJ&D Report warns against this idea stating, “Once political forces take over a statutory system, and they always do, it is merely a matter of time before a pro-victim proposal for no-fault compensation is turned into a fault-based, bureaucratic nightmare for the injured person.”

A full copy of the CJ&D National Report, as well as several state reports, can be found at http://centerjd.org.

If you or your organization is interested in learning more about or working on these types of civil justice issues, please contact cdugger@drummajorinstitute.org.

Posted at 3:27 PM, Sep 20, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

I agree that 400 is very low. That's just $20,800 a year as a salary, regardless of how much you made before your injury.

link and excerpt below:

Cash benefits are not paid for the first seven days of the disability, unless it extends beyond fourteen days. In that case, the worker may receive cash benefits from the first work day off the job. Necessary medical care is provided no matter how short or how long the length of the disability.

Claimants who are totally or partially disabled and unable to work for more than seven days receive cash benefits. The amount that a worker receives is based on his/her average weekly wage for the previous year. The following formula is used to calculate benefits: 2/3 x average weekly wage x % of disability = weekly benefit . The weekly benefit cannot exceed the following maximums, however, which are based on the date of accident:
Maximum Weekly Benefits by Date of Accident and Total vs. Partial Classification Date of Accident Weekly Maximum
Total Disability Weekly Maximum
Partial Disability
July 1, 1992 and after $400 $400
July 1, 1991 - June 30, 1992 $350 $350
July 1, 1990 - June 30, 1991 $340 $280
July 1, 1985 - June 30, 1990 $300 $150

Note: The benefit rate a claimant receives (determined by his/her date of injury) does not increase if new maximum benefits are adopted into law.

see link below

http://www.wcb.state.ny.us/content/main/onthejob/CashBenefits.jsp

This, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly the sort of "fairness" and "predictability" the tort reform lobby wants to bring to our justice system.

Which would you rather have, a jury of your peers empowered to fully compensate you and your loved ones in the event of your injury or death... or a bureaucratic system that places the profits of the guilty ahead of the rights of the injured?

Interesting... my comments on this topic seem to have vanished, making the the first comment (a response to me) seem rather odd.

Hi Deoxy,

Thanks for your observation. The reason it appeasr that your comment was deleted is that you made a reference to workers compensation on Justinian's post critical of the Center for Justice and Democracy - which I initially assumed you posted here.

Instead you posted it on Justinian's post

"A Spotter's Guide to Tort Reform"

http://www.tortdeform.com/archives/2006/09/a_spotters_guide_to_tort_refor.html#comments

Your comment is below.....

"Center for Justice and Democracy"

I hate to resort to ad hominem, but I simply won't waste any more of my life on their dishonest BS, so I won't take the time to even read it. I could actually be wrong on this particular report, I admit, but it would be a first when dealing with them.

As to my knowldge of Workers' Comp, let me just say that I have some significant exposure to WC in practice, and no, it's generally not that bad at all. The 66% cap may vary by state (as that was from memory from several years ago).

As to the "$400 a week" in new york thing, um, I find that to be quite simply unbelivably low, as that amounts to a full time job at $10 an hour, which is fairly poor pay for ANYONE in that part of the world. Do you at least have a link for that?