Court-appointed lawyer denied for torture suspect
Recent Cases
A judge has denied a court-appointed attorney for a Texas man accused of torturing a woman for two weeks on a device used for skinning deer.
The judge said Monday during Jeffrey Allan Maxwell's initial court appearance that the 58-year-old wasn't indigent because he had listed his net worth as about $200,000.
Maxwell told state District Judge Trey Loftin that he didn't have access to most of his assets and hadn't contacted an attorney. Loftin urged Maxwell to hire one.
Maxwell remains jailed in Parker County on aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault charges.
Authorities say he abducted his former neighbor from her Parker County home and drove some 100 miles to his Corsicana house. He was arrested there March 12 and the woman was rescued.
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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.