Monthly Archives: June 2020
Hospital Employee Injured in Active Shooter Situation Struggles to Get Workers’ Compensation to Cover His Injuries
When Alfred Gaines was a much younger man, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2016, when he was in his early 60s, he got a job in the housekeeping department at the VA Medical Center in Riviera Beach. The greater part of his job duties included cleaning patients’ rooms, but one day… Read More »
Florida Legislature Considers Bill That Would Count PTSD as an Occupational Disease for Correctional Officers
Advocates of criminal justice reform often support their position with evidence of the lasting trauma people suffer during incarceration or because of the stigma of having been incarcerated. People who work in jails and prisons also experience trauma, usually because of witnessing violence or being assaulted themselves. Many correctional officers who have witnessed violence… Read More »
Will Workers’ Compensation Pay for Your Treatment If You Get Injured While Working at Home?
The idea that working from home is the safest option is central to the stay-at-home policies that have been instituted in Florida and many other states. The fact that your chances of contracting COVID-19 or any other contagious illness decrease the fewer in-person interactions you have is only one of the benefits. When you… Read More »
OSHA Fines Florida Roofing Company After Worker Suffers Fatal Fall
You might not have known the name of the photograph “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” until now, but you probably have a clear mental image of it, even if it has been years since you last saw it. The sight of construction workers with lunchboxes, sitting on a crossbeam, with their legs dangling 69 stories… Read More »
Florida Appeals Court Overturns Two Rulings Awarding Workers’ Compensation for Work-Related Meningitis
Many workers become exposed to toxic or infectious substances while performing work that keep the rest of us safe and healthy. Workers’ compensation insurance, with its no-fault provisions, exist because work inherently contains risk of injury. Any employee who becomes ill as a result of doing his or her job is eligible for workers’… Read More »
Yes, Sick Building Syndrome Is an Occupational Disease
Every time you check the news headlines on your phone, you have a good chance of finding a headline about how working in an office building is bad for your health. Most of them are clickbait, designed to make you feel guilty about the sedentary lifestyle you follow in order to support your family… Read More »
Construction Worker Suffers Fatal Fall at Epcot Theme Park
Accidents at the theme parks of central Florida are the stuff of legend. A motion sick man got out of his boat on Splash Mountain and was fatally struck by the next boat. A boy lost a finger while disembarking from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. An alligator in a lagoon at a… Read More »
Employees Who Work from Home Are Entitled to Workers’ Compensation If They Get Injured
Employers are responsible for maintaining a safe workplace environment. Employees who get injured at work may file a workers’ compensation claim and have their employer’s insurance cover their medical treatment and other expenses related to the accident. Workers’ compensation claims have a no-fault policy for eligibility; injured workers do not have to prove that… Read More »