Woman with .708 blood-alcohol level pleads guilty
Recent Cases
A South Dakota woman who prosecutors say had a blood-alcohol level almost nine times the legal driving limit has pleaded guilty to two drunken driving charges. Authorities said 45-year-old Marguerite Engle was arrested Dec. 1 when she was found passed out behind the wheel of a stolen delivery van along Interstate 90, with a blood alcohol level at 0.708. The legal limit in South Dakota is 0.08. Officials have said Engle's blood alcohol level likely is a record for the state.
She was arrested again in late December, with a blood alcohol level more than 3 1/2 times the legal limit.
Engle faces up to two years in jail when she is sentenced on Feb. 23. In exchange for her guilty pleas, prosecutors have agreed not to pursue other charges, including receiving stolen property and drug possession.
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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.