Lawyers' Depresssion Soars During Recession
Headline Legal News
According to the New York Law Journal, the economic climate is causing more lawyers to grow nervous about the job market.
Even in good times, depression is a part of a career in law because of the high stress atmosphere. In bad times, it's much worse.
"There is anxiety and depression over being underemployed or unemployed, or marital difficulties if they lost their job and the question is, how do they handle the anxiety," said Eileen Travis, head of New York City Bar Lawyer Assistance Program.
More lawyers are calling the program and a greater number have been suffering from depression that stems, at least partly, from the decline in their personal and professional prospects brought on by the economic downturn.
The organization this month started a support group, where for an hour each week for six weeks, lawyers can commiserate and share stories about their struggles. Thirty-one people signed up for the first session, led by Sylvan Schaffer, a licensed psychologist who also is an attorney.
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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.