In this special edition of Workers’ Comp Matters from an ABA TIPS 2010 Conference on National Trends and Emerging Issues in Workers’ Compensation, host and Attorney Alan S. Pierce welcomes Jodi Harris from Blue Eagle Investigations, to discuss the pros and cons of workers compensation surveillance. Jodi will give an inside look at surveillance, combating the fraud that exists in the workers’ comp system, ethical and privacy issues and the different types of investigations and surveillance when dealing with an illegitimate claim.

Special thanks to our sponsor, Benoit Language Services.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:19 — 49.4MB)

Health Care reform continues to be at the forefront of the Obama administration’s agenda.  Host and Attorney Alan S. Pierce welcomes Jon L. Gelman to discuss health care and workers’ compensation and the Occupational Disease Pilot Program: a close look at the delivery of  medical benefits when it comes to occupational disease and how workers compensation may or may not fit into the big picture of universal health care or health care reform.

Special Thanks to our Sponsor, Abacuslaw

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Host and Attorney Alan S. Pierce welcomes  Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, Executive Director of the Mass. Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) and  Stacie A. Sobosik, Esq. from the Law Offices of Martin Kantrovitz in Boston,  to discuss access to workers’ compensation in the immigrant community and the overwhelming challenges immigrant communities face in the workers’ comp system.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:43 — 23.2MB)

Is the Workers’ Compensation system really there to protect us if we are injured on the job?  On this Workers’ Comp Matters program, host Attorney Alan S. Pierce welcomes Dr. Patrice Woeppel to take an inside look at the ins and outs of the workers’ compensation system and discuss her new book, Depraved Indifference: the Workers’ Compensation System.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:56 — 22.1MB)

On this Workers’ Comp Matters program, host Attorney Alan S. Pierce and Attorney Michael I. Fish, founding member of the Birmingham insurance defense law firm of Fish Nelson, LLC, will talk about the “F” word-fraud. It is something that makes workers comp attorneys on both sides of any case cringe. They will highlight employer fraud and hone in on premium misclassification and failure to obtain coverage by citing real life cases.

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Did you ever want to know what goes on in an Independent Medical Evaluation (IME)? On this Workers’ Comp Matters program, host Attorney Alan S. Pierce and Dr. David Cooper from the Knee Center, will take an in-depth look at the elements of the IME. They will discuss the Waddell signs, how long a comprehensive physical examination should take and the relevance of records from insurance companies.

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Hear how to properly settle a workers’ comp case and comply with statutory requirements to create a medicare set aside program, allocation or trust. On this Workers’ Comp Matters program, host Attorney Alan S. Pierce, and Attorney Neal Winston from the firm, Moschella & Winston LLP, update Medicare Set-aside issues and discuss the implemented changes that will affect liability cases in 2009.

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Cardiac injury claims in workers comp cases can be tricky. On this Workers’ Comp Matters program, host Attorney Alan S. Pierce, turns to Dr. Julian M. Aroesty, cardiologist from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, to explore the basics of proving and defending a work related cardiac injury claim focusing on basic causation issues, the importance of accurate history and a look at the role of a pre-existing condition.

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Join host and Attorney Alan S. Pierce at the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Section (TIPS) conference in Chicago recently for a candid discussion of the AMA Guides to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, 6th Edition in this Workers Comp Matters. Join Alan with special guests, Dr. Christopher Brigham, board certified in Occupational Medicine, President of Brigham and Associates and Senior Contributing Editor to AMA Guides effective now in 2008 and Attorney Todd McFarren, partner at Rucka, O’Boyle, Lombardo and McKenna and past president of the Work Injury Law and Advocacy Group (WILG). What’s the importance of the Guides in workers comp cases as a standard to define the impact of an injury or illness? And hear the recent criticism from some lawyers in the plaintiff bar across the U.S. Hear the issues and answers!

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The future of Workers Compensation laws are changing. Trends show the laws are being reformed making it more difficult for employees and easier for big corporations when it comes to Workers Comp. Is there a trend to federalize the laws? The questions are raised during Attorney Alan S. Pierce‘s Workers Comp Matters program discussed before an audience at the recent ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) conference in Chicago. Listen as expert guests, Professor Ed Welch, School of Labor & Industrial Relations at Michigan State University and Professor John F. Burton, Jr., School of Management & Labor Relations at Rutgers University join Alan in this peek at the future and where we go from here in Workers Comp legal issues. Special thanks to TIPS Chair & Attorney Len Nason for inviting LegalTalkNetwork to the conference.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (16.5MB)