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Our Eugene Oregon Bankruptcy Practice

Since 2005, Erin Uhlemann has helped individuals and families facing financial difficulties file for bankruptcy relief. Erin's compassion and understanding of the law have helped hundreds of Oregonians achieve a financial fresh start. She started Willamette Valley Bankruptcy to focus on helping clients with bankruptcy and debt issues in the Lane County Area. Erin understands that choosing a bankruptcy attorney who makes you feel comfortable and confident can be as difficult as deciding whether to file a bankruptcy case. Because she knows that filing bankruptcy is not something that you planned to do or look forward to doing, Erin strives to make the process as easy as possible.

Because most people facing bankruptcy do not have extra money to pay fees, Willamette Valley Bankruptcy offers low upfront fees and will work with you to set up affordable payment plans to pay attorney fees and court filing fees. Consultations are always free so that you can get the answers you need before making any sort of financial commitment. If you have questions about attorney fees and payment plans, you can call or email today to get these questions answered.

New York Adoption, Foster Care Litigation and Family Law

Rosin Steinhagen Mendel is a law firm dedicated to serving our clients in New York City, the surrounding counties in southern New York State, and in New Jersey, in the areas of adoption, foster care litigation, and family law.

We represent our clients in all types of proceedings that include termination of parental rights, permanency hearings, custody hearings, guardianship, administrative proceedings, and adoption. Our goal is to provide each of our clients with the best possible representation in all aspects of their cases, and clients appreciate our careful analysis of individual cases, through preparation and attention to detail. For over 35 years, our attorneys have represented adoptive parents, birth parents, foster parents, children, foster care agencies, and adoption agencies. We represent our clients in all types of proceedings that include termination of parental rights, permanency hearings, custody hearings, guardianship, administrative proceedings, and adoption.

Our goal for our lawyers is to provide each of our clients with the best possible representation in all aspects of their cases, and clients appreciate our careful analysis of individual cases, through our preparation and attention to detail.

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Workers’ Compensation Subrogation of Administrative Fees and Costs

When a worker covered by workers’ compensation makes a claim against a third party, the workers’ compensation insurance retains the right to subrogate against any recovery from that third party for all benefits paid to or on behalf of a claimant injured at work. When subrogating for more than basic medical and indemnity benefits, the Texas workers’ compensation subrogation statute provides that “the net amount recovered by a claimant in a third‑party action shall be used to reimburse the carrier for benefits, including medical benefits that have been paid for the compensable injury.” TX Labor Code § 417.002.

In fact, all 50 states provide for similar subrogation. However, none of them precisely outlines which payments or costs paid by a compensation carrier constitute “compensation” and can be recovered. The result is industry-wide confusion and an ongoing debate and argument with claimants’ attorneys over what can and can’t be included in a carrier’s lien for recovery purposes.

In addition to medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or indemnity benefits for lost wages and loss of earning capacity resulting from a compensable injury, workers’ compensation insurance carriers also expend considerable dollars for case management costs, medical bill audit fees, rehabilitation benefits, nurse case worker fees, and other similar fees. They also incur other expenses in conjunction with the handling and adjusting of workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation carriers typically assert, of course, that, they are entitled to reimbursement for such expenditures when it recovers its workers’ compensation lien. Injured workers and their attorneys disagree.

Recent Updates

  • Japan’s trade minister fails to win US assurances on tariff exemptions

    Japan’s trade minister fails to win US assurances on tariff exemptions

    Supreme Court News 03/12/2025

    Japan’s trade minister said this week that he has failed to win assurances from U.S. officials that the key U.S. ally will be exempt from tariffs, some of which take effect on Wednesday.Yoji Muto was in Washington for last ditch negotiations ov...

  • Supreme Court makes it harder for EPA to police sewage discharges

    Supreme Court makes it harder for EPA to police sewage discharges

    U.S. Court News 03/07/2025

    A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for environmental regulators to limit water pollution, ruling for San Francisco in a case about the discharge of raw sewage that sometimes occurs during heavy rains.By a 5-4 vote, the court’s co...

  • Trump signs order designating English as the official language of the US

    Trump signs order designating English as the official language of the US

    U.S. Court News 03/02/2025

    President Donald Trump signed on Saturday an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States.The order allows government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer ...

  • Lawsuit against abortion accommodations in the workplace can proceed

    Lawsuit against abortion accommodations in the workplace can proceed

    U.S. Court News 02/27/2025

    A lawsuit filed by 17 states challenging federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions may proceed, a federal appeals court ruled.The Eighth Circuit Court’s decision on Thursday reverses Eastern District of ...

  • Defense secretary defends Pentagon firings, says more dismals may come

    Defense secretary defends Pentagon firings, says more dismals may come

    U.S. Court News 02/23/2025

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insists President Donald Trump ’s abrupt firing of the nation’s senior military officer amid a wave of dismissals at the Pentagon wasn’t unusual, brushing aside outcry that the new administration is op...

  • Musk gives all federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week

    Musk gives all federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week

    U.S. Court News 02/20/2025

    Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the last week, sparking confusion across key agencies as billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to slash the size of federal ...

  • Troubled electric vehicle maker Nikola files for bankruptcy protection

    Troubled electric vehicle maker Nikola files for bankruptcy protection

    National News 02/17/2025

    Troubled electric vehicle maker Nikola has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection months after saying that it would likely run out of cash early this year.Nikola was a hot start-up and rising star on Wall Street before becoming enmeshed in scanda...

  • Steve Bannon pleads guilty and avoids jail time in border wall fraud case

    Steve Bannon pleads guilty and avoids jail time in border wall fraud case

    Supreme Court News 02/13/2025

    Steve Bannon pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defrauding donors to a private effort to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, ending a case the conservative strategist decried as a “political persecution.”Spared from jail as part of a plea...

  • Officers plead guilty in DWI police corruption probe in Albuquerque, NM

    Officers plead guilty in DWI police corruption probe in Albuquerque, NM

    U.S. Court News 02/08/2025

    Two former Albuquerque police officers pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of racketeering, extortion and accepting bribes in a sweeping corruption investigation into a scheme that allegedly allowed people arrested for driving while intoxicated ...

  • Trump signs order imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court

    Trump signs order imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court

    U.S. Court News 02/03/2025

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court over investigations of Israel, a close U.S. ally.Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of or recognizes the court, which has issued an arrest wa...

  • A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order

    A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order

    Supreme Court News 01/27/2025

    A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order denying U.S. citizenship to the children of parents living in the country illegally, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first h...

  • Trump suspends US foreign assistance for 90 days pending reviews

    Trump suspends US foreign assistance for 90 days pending reviews

    National Legal News 01/22/2025

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending all U.S. foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his policy goals.It was not immediately clear how much assistance woul...

Texas Adopts Statewide Texting-While-Driving Ban

Effective September 1, 2017, Texas will become the 47th state to pass a statewide ban on texting while driving. Governor Abbott’s signing of House Bill 62 is an effort to unify Texas under a uniform ban and remedy the “patchwork quilt of regulations that dictate driving practices in Texas.”

The bill specifically prohibits drivers from reading, writing, or sending an electronic message on a device unless the vehicle is stopped. That includes texting and emailing. It does not, however, prohibit dialing a number to call someone, talking on the phone using a hands-free device, or using the phone’s GPS system.

Violations would be punishable by a fine ranging from $25 to $99, to be set by each municipality. Although penalties could rise to as much as $200 for repeat offenders.

Studies have found that a driver’s reaction time is half as much when a driver is distracted by sending or reading a text message. According to state officials, in 2015 more than 105,000 traffic accidents in Texas involved distracted driving, leading to at least 476 fatalities.