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In September of 2014, Massachusetts received a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to enforce activities centered on worker misclassification detection.   The Massachusetts wage and hour laws allow workers who have been misclassified as independent contractors to bring lawsuits seeking monetary compensation against their employers.  Those employers who have wrongly classified their employees as independent contractors are obligated to provide workers’ compensation benefits to those misclassified employees who are injured during the course of their employment.

The Massachusetts independent contractor statute makes it difficult for an employer to classify a worker as an independent contractor.  Employers who misclassify an employee as an independent contractor may be subject to triple damages in accordance with Massachusetts wage and hour laws. Continue reading

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The new year brought  new changes to the United States Department of Labor, Occupational Health and Safety Administrations’ (“OSHA”) work injury reporting requirements for employers.  Prior to January 1, 2015, employers were required to report fatalities occurring at the workplace and incidents that required three or more employees to be hospitalized.  Beginning on January 1, 2015, OSHA now requires employers to report any injuries or illnesses that occur at the workplace and require only one employee to be hospitalized.  The employer of the injured worker must report the work injury or illness to OSHA within 24 hours of their first knowledge of the hospitalization. Continue reading

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  Perhaps the most common reason why injured workers seek out a workers’ compensation attorney is because their employer’s workers’ compensation insurer is refusing to authorize and pay for medical treatment that their treating physician is recommending.  Massachusetts workers’ compensation benefits provide for 100% payment of any and all medical treatment that is deemed to be reasonable, necessary and causally related to a work injury.  However, it is very common for workers’ compensation insurance companies to  either deny medical treatment or intentionally not respond to your doctor’s requests for medical treatment.  One possible reason for this is because many injured workers give up, try to use their health insurance (so the workers’ comp insurer doesn’t pay) and never get a lawyer to guide them through this difficult process.  Quite simply, although workers compensation insurers have laws and rules that they must follow in administering claims, they will do everything within those laws and rules (and sometimes outside of them) to frustrate injured workers so that they won’t seek medical treatment that they require. Continue reading

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OSHA has completed its investigation into the April 2014 crane accident in Bourne, Massachusetts that took the lives of two electrical workers.  Two linemen, John Loughran, Jr. and Michael Boyd, both age 34, were tragically killed when the crane truck from which they were working tipped over, causing them to fall more than 150 feet to their death.  Both men were working for Massachusetts Bay Electrical Corp.

In late September, OSHA announced the findings of its investigation into the incident and the fines levied on Mass Bay Electric Corp.  OSHA, stating that the accident was entirely preventable, has fined the employer $168,000 for two willful violations of workplace safety standards.  OSHA found that Massachusetts Bay Electric Corp. did not refer to or use readily available and necessary information that would have allowed the work to be conducted safely, resulting in the loss of two lives. Continue reading

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After you have been injured at work and need medical treatment, often times you will be contacted by your employer’s workers compensation insurance company or a nurse who works for the workers’ compensation insurer for the purpose of them trying to steer you to a certain doctor for medical treatment.  If this happens to you, you should be very concerned about the intentions of the workers’ compensation insurance company.  If you are receiving a weekly disability check from workers’ compensation, the workers’ compensation insurer does have a financial incentive to get you treated by a qualified doctor so that you can return to work as soon as possible and they can stop paying you your weekly disability benefits.  However, some workers’ compensation insurance companies try to steer injured workers to certain doctors because they know the reputation of the doctor is such that he is more likely to recommend medical treatment that is less costly to the insurance company, such as ordering conservative medical treatment such as physical therapy or injections instead of surgery.  Workers’ compensation insurance companies also are known to steer injured workers to certain doctors who are known to either not write disability letters for their patients (which are required in order for an injured worker to continue to receive a weekly disability check) or are likely to clear an injured worker to return to work well before that injured worker is actually physically capable of returning to his or her job (thus enabling the workers’ compensation insurer to stop weekly disability payments to the injured worker). Continue reading

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A recent Middlesex Superior Court decision in the case of Anderson v. AIG, which ordered AIG to pay over $7 Million to a lawyer who was struck by a negligently operated bus (which was insured by AIG), exposes the lengths a large, wealthy and powerful insurance company will go to in an attempt to deny full and fair compensation to an injury victim and his family.  In the Anderson case, AIG and its attorneys were found to have fraudulently created a fictitious version of how Mr. Anderson’s accident occurred in order to decrease its payout on the claim and save the massive insurance company a few million dollars.  You may recall that AIG, whose 2013 net income was over $9 Billion dollars (yes, billion), is the same AIG that received an $85 Billion bailout from our taxpayers (which includes Mr. Anderson, the victim of this accident and victim of AIG’s fraud).  Anyone other than plaintiff’s attorneys who routinely represent those harmed by the careless actions of others  in litigation against large, powerful insurance companies like AIG, may be shocked by AIG’s conduct which was exposed to the court in this case. Those of us who routinely handle these cases are not shocked by the findings, but rather relieved that AIG’s fraud was exposed for all to see. Continue reading

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In Massachusetts, when you are injured on the job and your work injury requires medical care, your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer is responsible for paying for 100% of any reasonable and necessary medical treatment.  You are not responsible for any co-payments and your medical providers are prohibited by law from “balance billing” you. (Balance Billing is an illegal practice where a medical provider attempts to bill a patient for the difference between what the insurance company has paid them, pursuant to their contract with the insurance company, and what they would normally bill a patient who does not have insurance).  Of course, just because Massachusetts workers’ compensation laws mandate that your employers’ workers’ compensation insurer pay for 100% of your work-related medical bills, it does not mean that they will always follow the law. Continue reading

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The United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has created a health and safety module for employers to follow which is aimed to help reduce workplace injuries to their employees. As OSHA states, employees and employers alike have incentives to maintain a safe workplace. Continue reading

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Many Massachusetts and Boston area construction projects require work to be performed outdoors during our region’s harsh winter months.  Construction workers are required to work in brutal winter weather conditions, such as extreme cold, snow and ice which can create dangerous working conditions.  Because injuries caused by winter weather conditions on construction sites can be costly to both construction companies and construction workers alike, proper safety measures must be followed in order to prevent these injuries.   Continue reading

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As the publicity of the NFL’s concussion crisis continues to increase, and public pressure continues to mount for the NFL to assume financial responsibility for the costs associated with injuries suffered by former NFL players, the NFL continues to deny former player’s claims for workers’ compensation benefits.  The most recent example is former NFL player Robert Alexander, who suffered a cracked vertebrae in his neck, had his claim denied and has now been pending for 3 years in California. Continue reading

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