Ruling Limits Courts' Role In Environmental Review
National News
Three people are accused of beating, torturing and prostituting a mentally disabled teen. Waquita "Goddess" Wallace, 33, Richard Marquis Harper, 20, and a woman identified only as "April" were charged in federal court with sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and sale into involuntary servitude. The victim may have been held for up to a month.
Here is the story as told by FBI Special Agent Cynthia Dockery in an affidavit:
The victim had been living with a female cousin who tried to convince her to have sex with her boyfriend. That man later forced the victim to have sex with him twice. The cousin left the victim at Wallace's house in late May or June. The cousin owed Wallace $3,300 and Wallace told the victim that the debt was now hers to pay off through prostitution and her food stamp and disability income.
The victim was forced to have sex with men and Wallace took her identification, wallet and clothes. Wallace beat her with fists and blunt objects and burned her with cigarettes and lighters. Wallace told her that she, Wallace, would kill her cousin, mother and grandmother if she tried to leave. Wallace, Harper and April held her head under water when she said she wanted to leave. The victim was rescued by her sister, who called the police.
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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.