Providence Personal Injury Lawyer

RI Hit and Run Automobile Accident - Part II

David Bazar — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:23:14 GMT

This discussion began with the story of a Providence man who hit three people with car and drove off with one of the people impaled in his windshield. The same issues could have been raised by the story reported by NBC10 of the West Greenwich man who hit a State Police cruiser while text messaging.

I left off with the issue of uninsured or underinsured motorist insurance coverage. In Rhode Island if the driver of the hit and run vehicle is never identified or is uninsured, then you can pursue a claim for your personal injury damages against the uninsured motorist portion of your insurance policy. Interestingly, if the driver is not identified you will not be able to pursue an uninsured motorist claim for property damage.

If the driver who caused the injuries has insurance, but not enough to fully compensate the injured party for their damages, then underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage will apply. In Rhode Island an injured person is entitled to the full value of their damages and can collect the difference between the damages and the coverage available from the hit and run driver's (liability) policy. For example if you sustain damages in the amount of $100,000 and the liability policy of the other driver has a limit of $25,000, then you can collect up to $75,000 on your UIM policy as long as your policy limits are sufficient.

The moral of the story: Be careful and attentive when you get out of a car on the side of a highway and make sure you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Bazar

RI Hit and Run Driver impales victim in windshield

David Bazar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:54:35 GMT

Early Sunday morning was not kind to three people who were standing on the side of Route 95 exchanging information after a minor accident. While on the side of the road, a Providence man hit all three impaling one of the people in his windshield. According to ABC6, The driver was later found hiding in a closet.

This accident raises several interesting issues. Rhode Island has mandatory liability insurance which requires drivers to have at least $25,000/$50,000 coverage. This means that a driver must have coverage that provides at least $25,000 per person with a total of $50,000 per accident for any injuries caused by his negligence. Assuming the driver had the minimum insurance coverage required and the three victims have damages far in excess of the required coverage, they may have recourse against their own inusrance company.

Check in tomorrow when we discuss uninsured/underinsured coverage in Rhode Island.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Bazar

Rhode Island Car Accident Injury Arbitration vs. Trial

David Bazar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:23:19 GMT

It's the classic question in trial law: Do I choose arbitration or litigation for my case?

There are pros and cons to both, as with any choice between two options, and depending on the specific case, one choice may be better than the other. Here is some information about arbitration and litigation (going to trial), so that you can decide which option is best for you.

Arbitration

According to the Law.com dictionary, "arbitration" is defined as:

A mini-trial, which may be for a lawsuit ready to go to trial, held in an attempt to avoid a court trial and conducted by a person or a panel of people who are not judges. The arbitration may be agreed to by the parties, may be required by a provision in a contract for settling disputes, or may be provided for under statute. To avoid clogged court calendars the parties often agree to have the matter determined by a panel such as one provided by the American Arbitration Association (which has a specific set of rules), a retired judge, some other respected lawyer, or some organization that provides these services. Usually contract-required arbitration may be converted into a legal judgment on petition to the court, unless some party has protested that there has been a gross injustice, collusion or fraud. Many states provide for mandatory arbitration of cases on a non-binding basis in the hope that these "mini-trials" (proceedings) conducted by experienced attorneys will give the parties a clearer picture of the probable result and lead to acceptance of the arbitrator's decision.

Basically, arbitration is when both parties go before a person or group of people (who are not judges), and have their case decided outside of a courtroom. Usually, the decisions made in the arbitration are binding, and converted into a full legal judgment, although many states now allow non-binding arbitrations so that both parties can get a better idea for how a real court would rule, with the hopes that both parties will then willingly submit to the arbitrator's ruling.

Arbitration Pros

1) Arbitration is done outside of a courtroom, and by a non-judge, and so arbitrated cases can often be addressed and decided much more quickly (think weeks or months instead of years) than if a court trial were pursued.

2) Arbitrations also usually cost less, since they take less time, and there is usually less discovery.

3) Arbitrations are confidential, since they are not held in a public courtroom

4) You usually have input into the selection of the arbitrator.

Arbitration Cons

1) Arbitrations are becoming more expensive, as they become more popular

2) The results are usually binding, and there is no option for an appeal as there would be in a case decided at trial.

3) If the arbitration is not binding it may not lead to a resolution of the case.

4) The Rules of evidence may be relaxed.

Litigation

Law.com defines "litigation" as "any lawsuit or other resort to the courts to determine a legal question or matter." The pros and cons for litigation are fairly close to being opposite of the pros and cons for arbitration.

Litigation Pros

1) Litigation has clearly defined rules of procedure that allow for an appeal if you believe the trial court mishandled your case.

2) All legally-obtained evidence can be used in the decision-making process.

3) The jury is impartially chosen, so both sides have less of an ability to sway the legal process.

4) Experienced attorneys are used more in trials than arbitration, so you can have an experienced legal expert make your case for you.

Litigation Cons

1) Trials are usually more expensive than arbitrations.

2) Trials usually take longer, since the courts are so backed up.

3) The process is public, not private, so any embarrassing information about you that is brought up in court is not confidential.

If you are in need of a quicker settlement, either for medical or personal reasons, and you can't afford the cost of a drawn-out court case, arbitration may be the better solution for you. However, if you have the time and money to invest in a court case, are involved in a case that involves a big company, or are hesitant about being bound to the results of arbitration, then you may want to pursue litigation instead.

In Rhode Island, most cases filed in Superior Court must be submitted to non-binding arbitration before being reached on the trial calendar. While either side may reject the decision of the arbitrator and have a trial before a jury, the use of this form of alternative dispute resolution has greatly increased the chance of settlement before trial.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Bazar

295 Rollover Accident Brings Seatbelt and Car Seat Use To Forefront

Robert Audette — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:40:20 GMT

Seat belts and car seats have long been touted as providing an essential safety function in the event of a vehicle accident. On September 1, 2009, on Route 295, a jarring tragedy served as another reminder of this fact.

Three women were riding in a Mercedes SUV when it lost control and rolled over. All three women were ejected from the vehicle in the accident, and preliminary evidence indicates that none of the women was wearing a seatbelt. Also in the car were three children aged eight months and one and two years. All three children were in the vehicle when emergency crews arrived on scene - still buckled into their car seats. The three children were treated for minor injuries at the scene. The accident is still being investigated. Police identified the victims Wednesday.

Sheila A. Armstrong, 23, of 189 Hunts Ave., Pawtucket, who was driving the Mercedes sport utility vehicle, was pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital, according to the Rhode Island State Police. Passenger Kayla R. Pine, 21, of 1644 Main St., West Warwick, was also pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital.

Another passenger is now in serious condition at Rhode Island Hospital. She is Claire L. Narvaez, 23, of 203 Sayles Ave., Pawtucket. She remains in the trauma and intensive care unit at Rhode Island Hospital, according to the state police.

This tragedy may have been lessened. Accidents such as this one occur every day in the United States and serve as grim reminders of the dangers of not buckling up. For the three children, their lives were saved in this accident, likely solely because of their car seats. It is critical that all children be buckled up either in car seats, booster seats or, if their height and weight permit, with adult seatbelts. Just as critical is ensuring that booster seats and car seats fit child passengers properly and that they are installed properly. Many fire stations and some hospitals offer assistance to drivers to insure that safety seats are installed properly.

For drivers, be sure you always wear your seatbelt, and begin a habit of insisting that all passengers in your vehicle are also buckled up. This is not only for your safety but also because many states now have laws which permit an officer to pull a driver over simply for failing to wear a seatbelt. Adjust the seatbelt, if you are able, to fit comfortably since a comfortable seatbelt is a seatbelt which is more likely to be worn.

The accident on the 295 is a terrible tragedy, and the lives of the victims’ families will never be the same because of it. The light of hope out of this incident is that the three children survived with only minor injuries and can be ambassadors, simply by their survival, of the benefits of taking those few extra seconds to buckle up.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Robert Audette

Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Information

Margaret Embry — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:48:39 GMT

Workers' compensation is a type of no fault insurance to provide medical expenses and lost wages to employees who are injured while working. Employers are required to have workers' compensation insurance to cover these benefits.

In Rhode Island, the Division of Workers' Compensation monitors the workers' compensation syste.  Through the Rhode Island Division of Workers' Compensation website, you can find coverage, file a claim, access the Donley Rehabilitation Center (which provides physical and vocational rehabilitation services for injured workers), report fraud, report an employer without coverage, find medical fees, and more.  There are also links to the Workers' Compensation Court, the Medical Advisory Board, and the Department of Business Regulations, all of which are involved with workers compensation.

According to the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 4,002,700 total recordable cases of nonfatal work-related injuries and illnesses in the United States in 2007. There were 5,657 fatal work-related injuries in 2007 nationwide.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Margaret Embry

Social Security Benefits and the Current Economic Crisis

Leonard Cordeiro — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:00:12 GMT

The ramifications of the current economic crisis in the United States are profound. Everyone ranging from top executives in “Corporate America” to the average blue collar worker on “Main Street” has felt the far-reaching effects of the sharp economic downturn caused by the mortgage meltdown and the significant losses in the stock market. The ripple effect has led to many losing their homes, retirement savings, and their jobs. Faced with these grim prospects, many people are at a loss as to how to cope with their current loss of income or job.

According to the Department of Labor and Training, the number of unemployed in Rhode Island is among the highest in the nation. There are thousands struggling to find employment. Unfortunately, the playing field is not even for everyone. Those individuals who are young and healthy with a strong educational background usually stand a better chance in finding employment than those individuals who are older, with limited education, suffering from chronic medical issues which limit their ability to find and perform work. What options exist for these individuals who seem to be at a disadvantage because of age, health, and educational background?

This article is designed to provide a brief overview of some basic programs that are offered through the federal government’s Social Security Administration (SSA) that may offer assistance to individuals who have recently lost their jobs or have been unable to maintain employment. Many of the recently unemployed suffer from chronic medical conditions which now hinder them in securing employment. Although these individuals may not be old enough to retire, they have been rendered effectively unemployable due to the combination of medical ailments, limited work experience, and limited educational background. This article will explore some options available through the SSA that may be of some value and assistance to such individuals.

For those individuals who have worked and contributed to Social Security and Medicare by paying taxes out of their paychecks for a period of forty (40) quarters or approximately ten (10) years, Title II of the Social Security Act affords those individuals monthly social security income (more commonly known as Social Security Disability or “SSDI”) payable through retirement age. However, the individual must satisfy a medical requirement in that he or she must not be able to physically engage in any substantial gainful employment. This inability to work must last or be expected to last greater than one (1) year. There is a five (5) month wait period before the individual can realize his or her first monthly social security disability check. The monthly benefit will be calculated based on the insured individual’s work record. Thus, not every individual collecting SSDI will receive the same monthly benefit.

After benefits commence in the sixth month, an individual may qualify for “Medicare”, a medical insurance program that runs with Title II benefits, after an individual has received twenty-four (24) months of disability compensation or reaches the age of sixty-five (65), whichever comes first. Every year, the SSA calculates an adjustment for inflation and implements a cost of living adjustment (COLA) which is added to the individual’s monthly disability payment.

Finally, once an individual receiving Title II benefits reaches retirement age, the SSA will automatically convert the individual’s monthly benefit rate to that which would yield the higher monthly payment under the continued disability or retirement program. It is important to note that this program not only provides monthly income benefits to disabled workers, but affords coverage to the blind, widow(er)s, and adults disabled since childhood.

For those individuals who for one reason or another lack the forty (40) quarters of contributions made to Social Security and to Medicare, Title XVI of the Social Security Act affords benefits to those individual adults or children who are disabled or blind under a program more commonly known as Social Security Supplementary Income or “SSI”. Like the SSDI program, SSI requires an individual to meet the same medical eligibility guidelines in finding one disabled from all substantial gainful employment for at least one year or more. However, unlike SSDI, SSI mandates an individual to meet certain financial criteria before becoming eligible for the assistance.

The individual must have limited income, resources, and meet living arrangement requirements. For a single individual, SSI allows a person to have no more than two thousand dollars ($2,000.00) per month in available countable financial resources. For a married couple, the resource limit rises to three thousand ($3,000.00) per month. The SSA counts certain assets as financial resources. These include but are not limited to cash, real estate, personal belongings, bank accounts, stocks/bonds, life insurance with cash value, rental income and other assets that one may use for his or her support.

However, not all of an individual’s resources count toward the SSI resource limit. For example, the home you live in and the land it rests on do not count. Personal effects, household goods, and burial plots for you and your family also do not count. Your car and life insurance policies with limited cash values may or may not count. Calculating an applicant’s financial eligibility for the SSI program is a complex process and should not be taken lightly. There are stiff criminal and civil penalties if an individual is not truthful when applying for this program or any other program offered through the SSA.

If an individual meets the medical and financial criteria for the SSI program, the monthly payment varies up to the maximum federal benefit rate, which may increase with supplements paid by the State or decrease due to the availability of the applicant’s countable income and resources.

Unlike SSDI, SSI has no wait period. An individual’s monthly benefit commences on the first month of his application for the SSI program. Further, there is no wait period to qualify for SSI’s medical insurance program called “Medicaid”. Like Medicare, Medicaid runs through SSA’s Title XVI of the SSI program.

Although SSI payments may fluctuate or even terminate due to and individual’s income or increased resources, payments can be made to individuals who are age sixty-five (65) or older who have limited income and resources. Further, children under age 18 who are disabled may qualify for SSI if the child does not perform “substantial work” and has a physical or mental condition (or a combination of conditions) which results in “severe or marked” functional limitations, as determined by the SSA’s medical impairment guidelines, which has lasted or is expected to last at least one year or is expected to result in death.

Finally, should an individual qualify for either the SSDI or SSI programs, the SSA reserves the right to review the individual’s medical (SSDI & SSI) and/or financial (SSI only) conditions to see if there has been any medical improvement or any increase in resources and income which may disqualify an individual from either or both programs. Further, the SSA allows an individual to attempt to return to the work force within certain financial and time parameters to test one’s ability to secure and maintain employment without penalty or reduction in one’s monthly disability benefit. These parameters are specifically outlined in the SSA’s rules and regulations.

Hopefully, many of those suffering from job loss or economic hardship will find this article and the information contained therein helpful. Let us hope that the solution for most in this economic current crisis will be reemployment and reintegration into the workforce. However, if neither of these options is realistic or possible, then certainly, this information and the programs discussed herein, do offer some hope to those in despair who began reading this article.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Leonard Cordeiro

Medical Treatment for the Injured Worker in Rhode Island

Sam Bazar — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:39:39 GMT

Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation System (Part III)

This is the third entry of a series on the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation system. The purpose of this series is to inform our readers about the basics of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation law. This series will also address certain aspects of the Longshoreman and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.

ARTICLE I: Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Law

Article II: Weekly Benefits under the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Act

In our previous articles we wrote about the basic foundation of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation system, and weekly benefits for injured workers in Rhode Island. In this piece, we will focus upon certain aspects of the medical treatment available to people injured at work in Rhode Island.

Medical Benefits

If you are injured at work and your injury falls within coverage of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act, you are entitled to receive reasonable medical treatment (including physical therapy, surgical treatment, dental treatment, optical treatment, hospital service, medicines, crutches and apparatus) for such a period as is necessary in order to “cure rehabilitate or relieve” you from the effects of the injury. Reasonable medical treatment, under Rhode Island law, is governed by whether the medical treatment is accepted at the national level. Medical bills related to the injury should be paid in full by the employer's insurance company. There are no co-payments or deductibles.

The employer’s insurance company need not pay for major surgery until permission for the surgery is obtained from the Workers’ Compensation Court, the employer, or the employer's insurance company. There is an exception to this rule in cases where compliance may prove fatal or detrimental to the injured employee.

You may choose your first medical care provider. Treatment at an emergency room after the accident or by a company physician does not count as the first medical care provider. Your first medical care provider may refer you to a specialist without prior approval from the employer's insurance company.

If you decide to switch doctors, you must first find out if your employer's insurance company has a "preferred provider network" (a list of approved doctors). If they do, you must either select a doctor from that list or get the approval of your insurer or self-insured employer before you see another doctor. If your employer's insurance company does not have an approved list of doctors, you may choose the doctor of your choice.

This has been a brief introduction to medical benefits. In our future articles, we will discuss rehabilitation benefits, an injured workers’ right to return to work after an injury, and also the opportunities for settlement of workers’ compensation claims.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Sam Bazar

Hospital/Nursing Home Infections Increasing

Robert Audette — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:16:01 GMT

Over 2 million hospital acquired infections occur each year according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It also estimates that another 1.5 million infections occur annually in nursing homes and other long term care facilities.

Until recently, it was extremely difficult to prove negligence against a hospital or a long term care facility for infections acquired in those facilities. Healthcare facilities would successfully argue that such infections were inevitable in such an environment. But in 2007, the CDC published guidelines that facilities should follow to prevent infections. Other organizations are studying the problem as well.

As a result, the standard of care in hospital and nursing home infection cases is tilting more toward the patients and successful verdicts are coming in from around the country. In Missouri, a judge ordered the federal government to pay $8.6 million to the former wife of an Air Force Captain where a military doctor failed to diagnose a case of flesh eating bacteria. A jury in Massachusetts just awarded $13.5 million to a woman who died from a flesh eating bacterial infection she contracted during cancer treatment. And a man in Missouri was awarded $2.58 million after contracting a staph infection during a pacemaker insertion which caused him to lose a kidney and one leg.

It is becoming clear that people injured by infections acquired in healthcare facilities now have a fighting chance to successfully prosecute claims against these facilities provided they failed to comply with standards such as those published by the CDC.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Robert Audette

Weekly Benefits under the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act

Robert Audette — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:16:53 GMT

Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation System (Part II)

This is the second entry of a series on the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation system. The purpose of this series is to inform our readers about the basics of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation law. This series will also address certain aspects of the Longshoreman and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.

ARTICLE I: Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Law

In our previous article we wrote about the basic foundation of workers’ compensation and the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation system. In this piece, we will focus upon the weekly benefits available to people injured at work in Rhode Island.

Weekly Benefits

Assuming you are employed and/or injured while working in the State of Rhode Island, there is a very good chance that your injury falls within coverage of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act. If the injury causes you to miss time from work, you

are entitled to weekly benefits which help replace your regular earnings.

Prior to the 1990 and 1992 Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation reforms, everyone who was out of work for a work-related injury received two-thirds (2/3) of their average gross weekly earnings prior (“AWW”) to their disability. Now, disabled workers’ are paid 75% of their net (“spendable base”) earnings which for many people (especially those with higher earnings and smaller families) means that they receive less than two-thirds (2/3) of their gross pay while on workers’ compensation. The spendable base is determined by tables published annually by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

We could talk for quite a while about how a persons gross earnings or “average weekly wage” is calculated in Rhode Island but suffice to say that for a full-time employee, your earnings up to 40 hours are averaged over the 13 weeks before you became disabled and are combined with any overtime or bonus compensation received over the prior year.

One of the first questions we are asked by most injured workers is how long will it be before I start receiving my weekly benefits. Fortunately, the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act is quite efficient in this regard. After a worker is injured and goes out of work with adequate notice to the employer and medical documentation, the employer or its insurance carrier has 21 days to decide what to do with this claim. They may legally accept the claim in a binding fashion, begin payments in a non-binding (non-prejudicial) way, deny the claim or do nothing. After the 21 days lapse and unless the employer/insurance carrier has accepted the claim, the employee may file a claim for benefits (a petition) with the Workers’ Compensation Court. Pre-trial Conference’s are generally held within 30 days of the filing and in most cases, decisions are rendered at that time. The employee may also file for and receive Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) through the State of Rhode Island Department of Employment Security while the workers’ compensation claim is pending.

Weekly benefits are payable for two types of disability in Rhode Island. Total disability means that a person is unable to perform any work activity at all for a period of time. Partial disability is defined as a person who cannot perform all of the duties of the job they held at the time of the injury but can perform light duty work. Weekly workers’ compensation benefits are the same for total and partial disability in Rhode Island except that when an injured person is totally disabled, they receive an additional $15.00 per week for each dependent (generally a non-working spouse and/or dependent children) although their weekly workers’ compensation rate can not exceed 80% of their average weekly wage regardless of how many dependents they have.

Perhaps the most significant change in the revision of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act in 1990 and 1992 involved the duration of weekly benefits. Prior to the revisions, there was no limit as to how an injured worker who was partially disabled could receive weekly workers’ compensation benefits. As long as they remained unable to do their former job and did not return to work, their benefits would continue.

Under the present law, benefits for total disability are unlimited so that a totally disabled employee can receive weekly workers’ compensation benefits with Cost of Living Adjustments as long as they remain totally disabled. However, a partially disabled worker is limited to six years of weekly benefits unless he or she can prove that at the end of the six years, they are unemployable.

It is rare that a partially disabled worker remains on weekly benefits for six years. First, it is difficult for many to survive financially for an extended period of time on workers’ compensation benefits. Second, many employers will offer the injured worker light duty work (suitable alternative employment) in order to get him or her back to work. Finally, if a partially disabled employee who has been out of work for an extended period reaches a point where his doctors feel his or her condition is permanent and stable (maximum medical improvement), the insurance company may request a 30% reduction in the workers’ weekly benefits.

It is clear from this brief summary that there are many issues and potential hurdles involved with a claim for weekly benefits under the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act. In our next article, we will cover medical and rehabilitation benefits, an injured workers’ right to return to work after an injury and also the opportunities for settlement of workers’ compensation claims.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Robert Audette

Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Law

Sam Bazar — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:01:30 GMT

Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation System (Part I)

This is the first entry of a series on the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation system. The purpose of this series is to inform our readers about the basics of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation law. This series will also address certain aspects of the Longshoreman and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.

What is Workers’ Compensation?

The Workers’ Compensation system was initially devised to address the confounding number of injuries sustained by workers in the course of their employment, and the inability of traditional tort law to provide relief for these workers. Traditional tort law required injured workers to prove that the employer was negligent by not providing a safe work place, safe tools, and a sufficient number of co-workers to safely perform the job. However, the employer could avoid liability by pleading contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, or by alleging that the injury was caused by a fellow worker. Most employees were not able to collect damages under this system. Even when employees could prove negligence on the part of the employer, the traditional tort system took far too long in cases where injured employees receiving no income or could not afford costly medical treatment for their injuries. With these issues in mind, the workers’ compensation system was devised.

Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation System

The Workers’ Compensation act is intended to “impose upon the employer the burden of taking care of the casualties occurring in his/her employment, thus preventing the injured employee from becoming a public charge.” See Geigy Chemical Corp. v. Zuckerman, 106 R.I. 534, 541 (1970). The objective of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation system is to provide an efficient and cost effective way to compensate employees injured at work for medical expenses and lost wages. The employer buys an insurance policy to cover injuries to employees in the workplace. The employer's insurance company pays claims that are covered under the employer's insurance policy.

The system was designed as a compromise between employers and employees. The Rhode Island Workers' Compensation system is a form of no fault insurance. In other words, you do not have to prove that your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence or wrong doing in order to collect benefits. In fact, a work injury can be caused by the employees own negligence and they still may collect benefits.

However, injured employees may not collect money for pain and suffering as they would in a typical negligence claim litigated under principles of tort law such as an automobile accident or a slip and fall. In addition, injured employees only receive a percentage of their lost wages as calculated by a formula set forth in the Workers’ Compensation Act. However, just like in a negligence claim, the injured employee may receive benefits for permanent scarring or loss of function to certain body parts resulting from the accident at work.

The other critical element of the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation system is that benefits are limited in duration. Sweeping law changes to the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act in 1990 and 1992 created a system whereby it is nearly impossible for an injured employee to receive more than six years of weekly workers’ compensation benefits replacing their lost earning when they are partially disabled from work (that is when they can perform some forms of work but not their former job).

Workers’ Compensation benefits are inherent in every employment contract written or not. Certain conditions must exist for an injured person to be eligible to collect benefits. The injured person must be an “employee” as defined by the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act. The employee must have been hired in Rhode Island or injured in Rhode Island.

There are sections of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act that exclude certain people from being covered by the Act. In general, employers with one or more employees are required to carry workers' compensation insurance. Sole proprietors, partners, certain real estate, agricultural and domestic service employees are not covered. Police, firefighters, and federal employees are covered under different compensation programs. Municipal employees are only covered if the municipality has chosen to be covered. Independent contractors are not covered. Whether or not someone is defined as an independent contractor is complicated and could be the subject of its own article.

This was meant of a very broad overview of workers’ compensation and the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation system. There are clearly many more details and nuances involved in the system which we will attempt to cover in future blog entries.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Sam Bazar