Cyrus Dugger

Workers’ Compensation Denial Stories Vol. 3

Part of why I think tort “reformers” have the opinions that they do is that they keep consideration of their point of view in the abstract. It is much easier to argue that people’s benefits should be slashed, or that the ability to access justice through the courts should be denied, when speaking in the abstract.

For this reason, through my Tort Victim Tragedies Series I hope to humanize the issue of tort “reform,” and hopefully thereby humanize the arguments of tort “reformers.”

For the same reason I began a series on the personal stories of injured workers who have been denied or were faced with unfair hurdles to secure workers’ compensation.

Here is installment number three:

Mussa Abdulkader immigrated to the United States from Eritrea in 1979 and currently resides in New York, New York. Mr. Abdulkader heard a loud crack and suffered from intense lower back pain as he lifted a 45-pound trash bag while carrying out his duties as a custodian at Public School 126 in the Bronx, New York in September 1995. At the emergency room he discovered that he had suffered a hernia and a herniated disc and required surgery. Mr. Abdulkader filed a Workers’ Compensation claim on September 14, 1995. The medical witness for the insurer missed at least four hearings which were consequently adjourned by the Board.

A sobering story, and unfortunately it happens all too often to far too many people.

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

Cyrus Dugger
Senior Fellow in Civil Justice
Drum Major Institute for Public Policy

Posted at 10:45 AM, Oct 11, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)