Workers’ Compensation

In order to have a safe work environment, it is important to start with having the proper safety procedures in place in the working environment. It is then important that employees are properly trained about hazardous conditions in the workplace and how to maintain safety in the workplace. Finally, it is important that the employees use the tools given to them from their employer and if the employee seeks additional information, then the employee can ask the employer for more guidance and/or the employee can seek guidance from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

Injuries from work related accidents can stop the flow of income needed to support a family so be sure that you contact a qualified Workers’ Compensation Attorney in Atlanta, Georgia to assist you as soon as you have been injured on the job, or if a loved one has been tragically killed on the job. It is also important to gather as much information about your Workers’ Compensation Claim in Georgia to assist your Workers’ Compensation attorney in helping you get the most they can to compensate you, or a loved one, for an injury on the job.

An administrative law judge (“ALJ”) for the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation has ordered an employer to pay temporary total disability benefits to a nurse who was hurt while performing her job duties. In Case No. 2014-007345, a Charlton County employer requested a hearing to determine whether an employee was entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits for the injuries she allegedly sustained in a workplace accident. Although the employer was mailed a notice pursuant to the requirements of Georgia law, the employer failed to enter an appearance at the hearing. After reviewing the evidence offered by the worker, the ALJ issued his findings of fact and conclusions of law.

A Railroad Worker for Railserve, Inc., Plaintiff Colby Hines, age 28 years old, and some of his fellow employees were drinking beer after work when Hines and his fellow employees, and possibly a supervisor or two, decided to make a potato cannon. A potato cannon is a make shift bomb made of beer cans, potatoes, and other items that act as projectiles.

This blog post is a continuation of my previous blog post titled, “Pre-Existing Conditions in Workers’ Compensation Cases in Georgia ~ part one.”

Since many jobs in Georgia involve different physical demands even if it is a job that involves extensive sitting and typing at a computer, it is no wonder that so many Workers’ Compensation Claims every year involve the issue of Pre-Existing Conditions. In order to understand how the Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition may have an impact on your Workers’ Compensation Benefits in Georgia, it is first important to understand what exactly is a Pre-Existing Condition.

The Georgia Court of Appeals has overturned a Georgia Board of Worker’s Compensation decision denying benefits to a deceased man’s family. In Bonner-Hill v. Southland Waste Systems, Inc., a man was tragically killed when his vehicle was struck by a train while he was driving over railroad tracks on his way to work. The man’s workplace is situated in such a way that anyone entering or exiting the premises is required to pass over the train tracks.

The Supreme Court of Georgia has held that a non-dependent parent may not collect benefits under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Statute. In Barzey v. City of Cuthbert, an unmarried 37-year-old man with no dependents was tragically killed in a workplace accident. His mother and only heir at law filed a lawsuit against the man’s employer, seeking to collect benefits under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act. In her complaint, the woman acknowledged that the law is the only avenue through which a Georgia worker’s heir may collect financial compensation following a work-related death.

The Supreme Court of Georgia has found that an injured employee waited too long to request statutory penalties in a workers’ compensation case. In Marta v. Reid, an individual filed a workers’ compensation claim following a workplace injury that occurred in October 1999. Soon afterward, his employer began paying him total disability benefits. Eventually, the payments ceased when the employee returned to work. Apparently, 12 of the 32 disability payments the man received were untimely under the Georgia workers’ compensation statute. About eight years after the man returned to work, the employee demanded that his employer pay him statutory penalties for the untimely payments. His employer asserted that the man’s claim was time-barred and refused to remit the requested funds to the worker.

Approximately 75 or more workers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention may have been exposed to anthrax bacteria due to a safety problem in a lab, WSB TV reports citing an Associated Press story. This happened as a result of Anthrax bacteria that was not properly inactivated and moved to a lab with lesser biosafety measures that were not designed to handle such samples, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions says.