RI court to hear arguments in pension case
Law Promo News
Attorneys for the state of Rhode Island will ask a judge to dismiss a legal challenge to the state's landmark pension overhaul filed by public-sector unions.
The hearing in Judge Sarah Taft-Carter's Providence courtroom on Friday is the highest profile one yet in the legal dispute over the year-old pension law. Unions argue the changes to state retirement benefits are unconstitutional and unfair.
State leaders insist that without the changes, ever-escalating pension costs would swamp state finances. They say the pension law — which passed overwhelmingly in 2011 — was carefully crafted to withstand legal scrutiny.
The litigation could have far-reaching implications as states around the country seek to rein in pension costs. Collectively, states face a $1.4 trillion gap between what they've promised workers and what they've set aside to pay for those benefits.
Rhode Island has attracted a high-profile defender: New York attorney David Boies has asked to join the legal team defending the law because of what he has said are the case's implications for other governments dealing with their own pension problems.
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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.