Cyrus Dugger
Workers’ Compensation Denial Stories Vol. 2
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 (which will resume this week) 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 two.
Juan Flores, a car mechanic, currently resides in Long Island City, New York. Mr. Flores was hit by a rolling car from behind and pinned to a wall in 1992 as an employee at the F. Gomez Service Station in Brooklyn, New York, where he had been working for 11 years. Mr. Flores received injuries to his neck, lower back, and both legs, has not been able to participate meaningfully in the workforce, and now has a degenerative condition called chronic spinal stenosis. He filed a Workers’ Compensation claim in June 1992, has had 10 hearings over 9 years, and continues to await a final decision on his claim. The Board terminated Mr. Flores’ benefits in 1993.(story taken from petition available here)
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 10:30 AM, Oct 03, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
