Indiana's high court to consider State Fair stage collapse
Headline Legal News
The Indiana Supreme Court is set to consider whether the state is responsible for some of the legal damages faced by a company that supplied stage rigging that collapsed at a state fair event in 2011, killing seven people.
The justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments Wednesday in the state's appeal of a March Court of Appeals ruling involving Mid-America Sound Corp.
That ruling found Indiana might be responsible for some legal damages faced by Mid-America, after high winds toppled the stage rigging onto fans awaiting the start of a concert by country duo Sugarland in August 2011.
Mid-America contends the state is financially responsible by contract for the cost of its defense and any judgments against it.
Related listings
-
Kentucky court session planned in former women's coach case
Headline Legal News 09/07/2015A pretrial conference is planned in the case of a former college women's basketball coach accused of groping a player. The session has been scheduled for Tuesday morning in a Kenton County court for Bryce McKey. McKey's attorney has entered a not-gui...
-
Washington Supreme Court rules against Backpage.com
Headline Legal News 09/04/2015The website Backpage.com may not be immune from state liability law and a lawsuit filed by three young girls who said they were sold as prostitutes on the website can proceed to trial, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a 6-3 deci...
-
Court cuts prison sentence for Memphis 'sovereign citizen'
Headline Legal News 09/03/2015An appeals court has reduced the prison sentence for a self-described sovereign citizen who was convicted of assaulting two police officers during a traffic stop. Tabitha Gentry was convicted in April 2014 of two counts of aggravated assault and one ...
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.