Workplace Injury

Two Employees Die In North Carolina Workplace Accident

December 29, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

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.

Number of North Carolina Workplace Injuries Declines

October 6, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What qualifies a person to receive Workers’ Compensation benefits?”

Statistics gathered by the Southeast regional office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics indicate that workplaces in North Carolina are getting safer, albeit slowly. The numbers indicate that a smaller percentage of workers faced injuries, severe or otherwise, in 2013 than in previous years. Though the numbers are hardly an astounding success, they do indicate that things are improving for workers in North Carolina, something worth celebrating.

Woman claims racial, sexual discrimination caused her termination from financial firm

May 21, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What should I do if I have been injured by another party but I can’t afford a lawyer?”

A woman who is married to an American National Football League player has sued the investment firm that terminated her employment, alleging that her dismissal was based on racism and sexism.

Council wins another legislative victory at the expense of injured claimants, say lawyers

May 12, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Should I trust the insurance adjuster?”

Legislation culled from so-called “bill-mill” American Legislative Exchange Council’s library of plaintiff-unfriendly proposals has become the law of the land in the State of Arizona, and personal injury attorneys are crying foul. They say the bill Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law last Thursday will prevent victims of asbestos exposure from recovering the damages they are owed.

Teacher claims student bullies forced her into early retirement

March 10, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What happens when the employer refuses to acknowledge my claim?”

Politicians, celebrities and school districts around the United States have joined forces in a campaign to end bullying. That campaign, however, has been geared at ending bullying of students in American schools.

Company’s treatment of breastfeeding employee a case of what not to do

December 9, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Can my employer fire me because I filed a workers’ compensation claim?”

A mother-of-two who was ordered to breastfeed in a supply closet at work has settled a sex harassment lawsuit she brought against her employer.

The woman—Monica Van De Pitte—said a picture of a cow was taped to the door of the supply room at the Lake Oswego, Oregon-based Velocitel, a wireless network company. The picture was posted after coworkers “mooed” at Van De Pitte and others who were breastfeeding at work, and was meant to direct her and other mothers where to go to breastfeed at the office.

A coworker told Van De Pitte that others in the office thought breastfeeding was “gross.”

Van De Pitte said she explained to her bosses when she was hired that she would need a private place to breastfeed her young son, but that the “mooing” and “colleagues openly bragg[ing] about their sex lives” affected her so much that she struggled to produce enough milk to feed her son once she was alone in the room.

Van De Pitte ultimately resigned from her position in 2013 and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company.

Medical marijuana user sues, argues company violated law by denying her an internship

November 18, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

A graduate student who was denied a summer internship at a textile company because of her use of medical marijuana has brought an employment discrimination lawsuit against the company.

The attorney who represents the student, Carly Iafrate of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the legalization of medical marijuana would be “an empty promise” if employers are allowed to discriminate against people based on their status as medical marijuana users.

The ACLU said it believes it is the first lawsuit of its kind brought in the state.

Lawsuits have been brought in other states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana, including New Mexico, Maine, Colorado and New Jersey. The New Mexico, Maine and New Jersey cases are still pending in courts in each of those states.

Last month, a Colorado quadriplegic named Brandon Coats lost an appeal in that state’s Supreme Court. Coats was fired in 2010 after failing a drug test. He said he used medical marijuana to control involuntary muscle spasms. Colorado’s high court ruled that legalizing the use of medical marijuana did not establish a Constitutional right to use the drug.

Transgender military members face termination for becoming who they are

October 28, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What happens when the employer refuses to acknowledge my claim?”

Military regulations require the immediate dismissal of any service member who is found to be transgender. That is placing the some 15,500 transgender people serving in the military in a quandary, and forcing peers, supervisors and military doctors who are aware of members’ status to “look the other way,” according to sources and advocates interviewed by the Washington Post.

Political leaders from President Barack Obama to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have expressed support for examining the ban and, potentially, lifting it. The Pentagon, however, told the Post that no review was underway, and Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, worries that transgender service members are being lulled into a false sense of security.

She said openly transgender service members risk losing their jobs. Some two dozen service members have been discharged in the past two years after their transgender status was uncovered, according to advocates.

Military leaders are focused now on more urgent priorities such as the conflict with the Islamic State raging in Iraq and Syria and looming budget cuts. Army Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock told the Post that the military will eventually “do the right thing” by allowing transgender service members to serve openly. The change is just not going to occur as soon as some would like.

Marijuana now legal, so failed drug test not grounds for termination, employee argues

September 30, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Lawyer says “hero” security guard’s firing a textbook case of age discrimination

August 28, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

A Pennsylvania high school security guard made headlines in April when he endured a knife in the chest while helping to apprehend a young man who allegedly stabbed twenty students with a pair of eight-inch kitchen knives.

Now the man, John Resetar, is making headlines again, but this time he is not being hailed as a hero. This time he is a victim of age discrimination, his lawyer Tim Dawson said. Dawson said Resetar sustained the stab wound on a Wednesday and was back at school the following Monday. The knife pierced Resetar’s chest cavity to within an inch of his heart. Dawson said Resetar is a former linebacker who is a “young seventy,” young enough, the lawyer said, to keep his job.

Officials with Pittsburgh-based Capital Asset Protection Inc. thought otherwise. They fired Resetar for no good reason, according to Dawson. Resetar received a letter on Aug. 4 from Capital and Franklin Regional High School informing him of his termination. Resetar said he was upset by the way the school handled the termination. “Nobody would sit down and talk to me and tell me to my face,” he told the Daily Mail.

An assistant superintendent with the school district suggested that the decision to terminate Resetar was Capital’s, and the matter was out of the school district’s control. She said she was surprised that the letter Capital sent to Resetar mentioned the school district and said she was working to obtain further information about the firing.