Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “How do worker comps payments work?”
We all know that in personal injury cases, settlement is a common end result. Though there are lots of reasons why this is the case, a big one is the degree of uncertainty on both sides. No one knows for sure how a jury may find, no matter how strong the case may appear in advance. The reality is that going to trial is inherently risky. Settling helps reduce that risk, ensuring you walk away with something, even if it is not what you may have hoped for.
Personal injury Lawyer Matt Arnold answers the question: “If I am injured in a car accident or at work what should I do?”
It is unfortunately all too common in personal injury cases that employers and insurance companies to dig up dirt on injured employees. In cases where a company has a lot of money on the line, it is routine for the company to pull out all the stops in putting together its defense. This means combing through social media accounts, talking to friends and family members and even hiring private investigators to follow the person. The goal of all of these actions is to find an inconsistency in the injured person’s behavior that can be used against him or her in court. These inconsistencies can make jurors doubt the injured worker’s claims and lead to a reduced injury award.
Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “How do worker comps payments work?”
Immigration is a complicated thing, that’s something everyone understands. Recent news headlines reveal how heated the topic can be, with people voicing strong opinions on the subject. Though there are broader debates about whether and how much immigration is a good thing how the system ought to operate, most people agree that it’s important that once immigrants are in the country that they have access to the justice system on an equal playing field with others. To do otherwise would create a lower caste of people who are denied justice.
Board Certified Family Law Specialist Matt Arnold answers the question: “Should I delete old posts or censor new posts while going through a divorce?”
Thankfully, most people don’t give much thought to things like forum or jurisdiction after they’ve suffered a serious injury. After all, the person with the injury is likely busy trying to recover and understandably delegates tasks like filing the lawsuit in the appropriate venue to his or her personal injury attorney. Though forum selection should never be foremost in a plaintiff’s mind, it’s good to understand some background on the issue given the impact it can have on certain personal injury cases. To learn (a little) more about forum shopping and selection, keep reading.
Personal injury Lawyer Matt Arnold answers the question: “What qualifies a person to receive Workers’ Compensation benefits?”
Despite the millions of U.S. workers each year who report a workplace injury or illness, there are countless other workplace injuries that go unreported. Incentives for not reporting (and disincentives for reporting) keep many workers from ever reporting their injuries, barring them from filing for workers’ compensation to receive wage compensation and medical treatment.
Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”
Immigration has been and still is an incredibly hot button issue in the United States. The issue is politically, legally and even socially charged, with reasonable individuals expressing a wide array of views. Though immigration status frequently comes up in a legal context, it does so usually with regard to deportation or the right to receive certain benefits. One area where immigration status is seldom discussed is in the context of a personal injury claim.
Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What qualifies a person to receive Workers’ Compensation benefits?”
It is genuinely tragic to think that someone simply trying to earn a living and provide for their family might leave for work in the morning and not make it home in the evening. Fortunately, the frequency with which such tragedies occur has decreased over the past several decades thanks to increasingly tough regulations and enforcement by federal and state workplace safety agencies. Though things have improved, it’s important to remember that hundreds of people die across the country each and every year due to lapses of workplace safety procedures, meaning hundreds of families suffer through the loss of a loved one who was only trying get to work.
Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What if the accident was my fault?”
The horrible accidents that marred the fun of the North Carolina State Fair have been in the news a lot recently, especially articles concerning the injured riders who may have been victims of intentional tampering with the ride’s safety features. Another person seriously injured due to a different Vortex ride has not gotten nearly the same amount of press, though likely deserves it given the horrible circumstances of his accident and the extent of his injuries.
Family members for Anesto Newell, a 32-year-old worker at the fair, say that he has undergone emergency surgery to treat life-threatening injuries sustained after a portion of the Vortex ride he was tearing down collapsed on top of him. Newell was part of a crew hired by Powers Great American Midways to tear down the rides after the fair closed to the public last week. Newell was about four hours into his shift when witnesses say an entire row of seats from the Vortex ride fell onto the man.
The accident happened around 3:30 in the morning and, horrifyingly, Newell’s two brothers were also in the area working to break down rides. They say that they heard a series of loud pops and then a terrible boom. Afterwards, they looked up and noticed the top of the Vortex ride was swaying and appeared to be missing a row of seats. It only took a second for the brothers to realize that the Vortex was where Newell had been working and they went running to offer assistance.
By the time they arrived they found Newell mangled by the row of four seats. As horrible as it is to imagine, they say Newell was bent in such a way that his feet were stuck near his head and was understandably in an immense amount of pain. Emergency responders arrived soon thereafter and rushed Newell into WakeMed for treatment.
Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “I have been injured on another person’s property. What should I do now?”
A major report compiled by the AFL-CIO was recently released which discussed the current state and health of the average American worker. The report dove into the ways in which workers suffer harm while on the job and examined which workers were at the greatest risk for suffering workplace accidents.
The study, titled “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” found that in 2011 there were 148 workplace deaths in North Carolina. Of these, a third involved transportation incidents such as workers dying while on the road. Amazingly, 20 percent of the workplace fatalities involved violence and assault, not something that many people would assume happens in the workplace.
The next biggest category of workplace fatalities was industrial falls. Contact with dangerous workplace equipment is responsible for 24 fatalities in North Carolina each year, harmful substances and chemicals are responsible for 12 fatalities and fires and explosion were found to be to blame for four fatalities.
The study also found that Latino workers were at an especially high risk of workplace death and injury. The reason was not because Latinos are more prone to accidents, but instead because, as a group, Latinos are more likely to work in hazardous industries with poor safety records. These industries include things like construction and agriculture where safety regulations are often lax or totally nonexistent. Another problem identified in the report is that undocumented workers are especially vulnerable to workplace injuries because they are often reluctant to report dangerous working conditions for fear of being deported.
Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “I have been injured on another person’s property. What should I do now?”
Chicken processing plants are big business across the southern U.S., especially here in North Carolina where thousands of workers are employed in poultry plants. Though the jobs can be important for some rural communities, the dangers posed by working in the plants can be tremendous.
Just last month a poultry processing plant in Raeford, NC was ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines for releasing untreated wastewater into the city’s treatment plant. The water contained blood and turkey parts and was sent directly to the treatment plant without any warning. The investigation found that the company ordered employees to handle the potentially harmful waste before it was sent out into the town’s water supply.
The news of the North Carolina incident, which jeopardized the health and safety of plant workers, mirrors the conclusion of a recent report issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center, called “Unsafe at These Speeds”. The report found that workers in poultry plants are often exposed to dangerous work conditions and suffer injuries at much higher rates than other workers.
The problem the report zeroed in on was that workers at chicken plants are required to work at an unsustainably fast pace. The grueling workload puts workers at risk for injuries and also exposes them to harmful and even toxic substances. Given the cold temperatures in the plants and the repetitive work, muscle pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, back and shoulder problems are all very common. In fact, the risk is so high that the study found that workers at chicken plants are almost 2.5 times more likely to have severe carpal tunnel than non-poultry industry workers.
Charlotte Injury Lawyers Blog
