Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies
National News
A law firm spokeswoman says former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who worked for peace in Bosnia and the Mideast in the Clinton administration, has died in Los Angeles.
Spokeswoman Sonja Steptoe from law firm O'Melveny & Myers where Christopher was a senior partner says he died at his home Friday night of complications from bladder and kidney cancer. He was 85.
As he prepared to step down in as secretary of state in 1996, he said his proudest accomplishments included helping promote a ban on nuclear weapons tests.
He also tried to foster peace in the Middle East, without much success. He was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia.
Related listings
-
Mississippi high court upholds price-gouging law
National News 03/11/2011The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the state's price-gouging law.The justices Thursday unanimously overturned a Winston County judge's ruling that the law was unconstitutionally vague.Chancellor J. Max Kilpatrick's ruli...
-
Father of music group members pleads guilty
National News 02/18/2011His voice barely audible, the patriarch of the acclaimed 5 Browns classical music group said "guilty" to each charge of sexually abusing his three daughters when they were children. Thursday's admission in a Provo courtroom means that Keith Brown, 55...
-
Journal seeks to end ban on Medicare data
National News 01/25/2011The publisher of The Wall Street Journal went to court Tuesday seeking to overturn a 31-year ban on the release of records about how much Medicare money individual doctors receive.Dow Jones & Company Inc. filed papers in federal court in Orlando ...
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.