Governor Deval Patrick recently passed an amendment to Massachusetts’ workers’ compensation statute that allows any three private citizens to file a civil suit against employers who fail to follow workers’ compensation laws. The amendment incentivizes plaintiffs with a monetary award, compensatory and liquidated damages, and costs and attorney’s fee. The…
The head flight instructor for the Beverly Flight Center was killed this past week after being struck by a moving propeller. The victim, a Weymouth resident, had been an instructor for the past ten years at the Beverly Airport. The Essex District Attorney’s Office stated that the pilot’s death appears…
A 24-year-old worker at the Yankee Candle Co. warehouse in Deerfield died after falling from a forklift. The man started his employment at the warehouse only a few months before the accident. He obtained the position through a local temp agency. The man fell approximately 30 feet from the forklift.…
Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on fatalities in the workplace. While the final figures will not be released until April of 2010, the preliminary report states that there were 4,340 fatal work injuries in 2009. The number of fatal work injuries has decreased 17 percent…
On Monday afternoon, a 31-year-old worker suffered life-threatening injuries after falling from a structure where he was working. Several beams had reportedly given way and the worker’s safety line was attached to one of the beams, so the falling beam pulled off the wall. He apparently suffered head trauma and…
A Worcester Superior Court has ordered a 35-year-old man and his company to pay $500,000 in restitution after the man pled guilty to over 60 charges of committing workers’ compensation insurance fraud and violating Massachusetts wage and hour laws. He has also been ordered to serve five years probation. Labor…
Our Boston workplace injury lawyers have learned that a man from Acushnet, Massachusetts is the lead plaintiff in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston against FedEx Corp. Thirty-one current and former truck drivers are suing the delivery company over improperly classifying them as independent contractors. They allege…
Our Boston worker’s compensation lawyers recently read about a study by the Cambridge-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The study found that there are dramatic differences among worker’s comp medical fee schedule levels in the 43 states which use them. It used each state’s Medicare fee schedule as a benchmark,…
Last month, a construction worker was killed after being pulled from the ruble of a Norfolk condo explosion. The 48-year-old man was stuck under the burning debris for an hour and a half before being rescued and taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he died about 10:30pm…
Our Boston workers’ compensation lawyers have learned that the average payment per claim for prescription drugs in the Massachusetts workers’ compensation system was 30% lower than the median of 16 other states studied. Titled Prescription Benchmarks for Massachusetts, the report found that the average payment per claim was $289. Researchers…