'Suge' Knight comes to court for robbery case in wheelchair
Legal Events
A judge on Wednesday gave former rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight time to hire a new attorney in a robbery case filed after a celebrity photographer accused him and comedian Katt Williams of taking her camera last year.
In a separate case, Knight has been charged with murder in a deadly hit-and-run.
The Death Row Records co-founder appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom chained to a wheelchair. He complained to Judge Ronald Coen, saying he could walk. Knight fell at his previous court hearing and has been taken from courthouses four times for medical conditions since he was charged with murder in early February.
The judge promised Knight, 49, that he would not be brought into court in the wheelchair again as long as he was fit to walk.
Coen pressed Knight about whether he wanted a new attorney in the robbery case. His previous attorney, David Kenner, said in a filing he no longer wanted to represent Knight.
Knight said he wanted to fire Kenner and has until May 27 to hire a new attorney.
Knight is due back in court Monday for a preliminary hearing in a murder case filed after he allegedly struck two men with his truck outside a Compton burger stand, killing one of them.
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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.