The primary cause of fatalities and serious injury on the jobsite can be narrowed down to twelve hazardous conditions. The Ironworkers union refers to these as the Deadly Dozen Hazards and has committed to a long term educational campaign to help workers spot and correct hazards before they become deadly.
During the past year the Ironworkers ZERO Fatality-Incident Campaign commissioned by General President Eric Dean, and the IMPACT board of trustees, concentrated on training and communication measures to the improve safety for ironworkers while on the job. The overarching goal of the campaign is to improve safety skills and knowledge.
Most people don’t understand that when you get hurt at work, you not only have the potential for a workers’ compensation claim, but also a third party negligence claim. You might wonder, what exactly is the difference between the two?
A workers’ compensation claim is against your employer and is intended to recover partial wage benefits and payment of medical bills from your work related injury, if you are injured in the course and scope of your employment. A third party claim, on the other hand, is against someone other than your employer and is intended to recover pain and suffering, lost wages, future wages, and other damages. Because the law does not allow you to sue your employer for negligence, workers compensation is your only remedy against your employer. As a result, you must look to third party to recover your other losses.
For example, let’s assume you are working at a construction site and you fall through a hole in the floor. As a result of this fall, you are catastrophically injured. The hole was created by Company A, who did not secure, cover, or provide warning for the hole. You work for Company B. In this type of case, you would be eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits from Company B and pursue a third party negligence case against Company A for failing to secure, cover, or provide warning for the hole.
With the arrival of the New Year, there are many pledges or resolutions being made. Some pledges include the promises by nursing homes to give better quality care to its residents. While made with good intentions, these promises may actually be prompted as a result of the “Special Focus Facility Initiative” program conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
This program reviews nursing homes on a regular basis to determine if the homes are providing quality care. Medicare personnel identify the homes that require corrections or improvements. If serious problems are not corrected then the nursing home’s participation in billing Medicare and Medicaid may be terminated.
As a result, many nursing homes are pledging and resolving to provide better service and improve the care to their residents. The New Year, however, may be too little too late for some, as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services have already made a list of Nursing Homes that are either in need of improvement or have improved since making the list.
If you are considering placing your loved one in a nursing home, please be sure to consider the information in the Special Focus Facility (“SFF”) Initiative report.
Stark & Stark has developed a Pennsylvania Nursing Home Practice in conjunction with our New Jersey Nursing Home Practice. We represent families of loved ones who have been mistreated and neglected in nursing homes. Please contact Stark & Stark’s Nursing Home Litigation Group if you would like to discuss the improper care your loved one has received in Pennsylvania.
When a family member or loved one is killed as a result of the negligence of another person, it can be understandably difficult to determine what next steps you need to take. In cases such as these, the terms “wrongful death” and “survival” claims are typically discussed. These types of claims aim to recover damages for the families of the deceased. Although both terms are frequently referenced together, they are actually very separate and distinct terms. For this reason, it is extremely important that families understand what each means.
A wrongful death claim is an action to recover damages for the death of an individual. In addition, money may also be recovered for reasonable hospital, nursing, medical, and funeral expenses, as well any expenses resulting from the administration necessitated by the reason(s) of death. The money recovered in a wrongful death claim will only go to either the spouse, child(ren), or parents of the deceased, and only as beneficiaries. Each of these individuals is entitled to money in accordance with intestacy laws. Intestacy is a legal term that refers to any individual who has died without a Will in place. As a result, money obtained from a wrongful death claim is distributed by these laws, so even if there is a Will prior to death, that will not affect or control how this money is distributed amongst family members.
Read More about Understanding Wrongful Death & Survival Claims
As an attorney who represents families whose loved ones are neglected, killed and abused in nursing homes, I personally see the care, or should I say lack thereof, provided to our elders. Fortunately, I’m not the only one who’s taken notice. Recently, the Pennsylvania Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, has taken an interest in this subpar care.
A complaint was filed in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Courts against Golden Gate National Senior Care Center LLC (“Golden Gate”), a company that operates dozens of “Golden Living” nursing home facilities around Pennsylvania. In the complaint, it is alleged that Golden Gate left residents hungry and unkempt, and also participated in unfair trade practices. Specific allegations include a general lack of supervision, which led to incidents of residents being left unchanged and sitting in their own excrement, as well as falsifying records to indicate that services were performed when they had not been.
Jeffery Johnson, a spokesperson for AG Kathleen Kane, has stated that Golden Gate mislead consumers with their advertising, by giving the impression that they offered a certain level of care that, in fact, was not provided. Additionally, when investigations were performed by the Department of Health, Golden Gate would increase their staffing the day of for the purpose of misleading the inspections, according to Johnson. A representative from Golden Gate has denied the allegations and has alleged that Kathleen Kane is pursuing this lawsuit as retaliation and to obtain fees for a connected law firm.
While the outcome of this litigation remains to be seen, there is no doubt that it will draw attention to subpar care that may be present in more nursing home facilities. As an advocate for the elderly, I hope that through litigation, awareness is raised and the conditions that our elders may face in a nursing home improve.
If your family member has been killed, neglected or abused in a nursing home, we recommend that you consult with experienced legal counsel immediately.
If you are anything like me, this warm weather has brought about spring cleaning. For my family, this means cleaning out and organizing the garage. We put soccer, baseball and footballs in a bin, donated or threw things away and this year we decided to hang our bikes. We went to our local Home Depot and bought hooks. Well, The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has recently recalled the exact hooks we bought. It is the Husky Securelock® vertical bike hooks. These hooks are used with a Husky Trackwall® garage storage system. This system is sold exclusively at Home Depot and was sold between April 2011 to March 2015. It has a 3” by 3.5” black metal plate that is gets mounted to the grooves in the Trackwall. The bike’s tires is attached to a hook that protrudes from the plate.
The firm, Waterloo Industries Inc from Iowa, has had at least 22 complaints about the Husky Securelock®. These complaints have been that the bike hooks are falling from the Husky Trackwall® system. No injuries have been reported, but property damage to the bikes and vehicles nearby been reported. If you would like further information you can contact Waterloo Industries at 800 833 8851 or contact Home Depot.
McNeil, a local Montgomery County healthcare company which produced the medications infant tylenol, children’s tylenol and children’s motrin in its Fort Washington,PA location will have to pay 25 million dollars. The company recently plead guilty because in 2009 when a consumer alert was issued,indicating there were black specs in the medicine, the company failed to initiate a corrective plan. Consumers found what turned out to be nickel and chromium in the medication, which was not an intended ingredient. Upon investigation, the Food and Drug Administration found that there were more than 30 batches of children’s medication that had nickel and chromium in them. The local Fort Washington company, which is a division of Johnson and Johnson, remains under a 2011 injunction and must take corrective measures before it is permitted to reopen.
If a loved on has been injured by a defective drug contact Stark & Stark today for a free consultation.
Unfortunately the number of people killed by motor vehicles while walking or riding their bicycles continues to go up. This is despite the efforts by many states to implement laws regarding helmets. Of those killed, studies show that 65% of the bicyclists were not wearing helmets. While several states have helmet laws that relate to children, most states have no laws relating to adults wearing helmets.
In our own community here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania between 2008-2012 the total deaths of adults of children struck while riding bicycles or as pedestrians, by motor vehicles was 51. This is about 1.6 persons to every 100,000 people who live in our area. To us, here at Stark and Stark, any loss is too many and we therefore encourage people to be aware of your surroundings, wear a helmet and proper safety and reflective equipment.
Stark & Stark represents clients that have been injured in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Yardley office is Bucks County’s catastrophic injury attorneys. If you or a loved one has been injured, contact Stark & Stark today.
A few weekends ago, I attended a wonderful charity event sponsored by the “Hellraisers Bucks County, LEMC”. The event was held at the Newportville Firehouse in Newpostville, PA on Sunday, November 2, 2014 to raise money for the mother of one of the members who was able to battle cancer thanks to the “Healing Consciousness Foundation” an organization that helps people overcome their battle with cancer. Although the name “Hellraisers” sounds intimidating for a motorcycle group, the members of this organization could not have been more welcoming and inviting, for this fundraising event. I want to thank Ron Zapolski, who is the “Ride Captain” for inviting me, and Stark and Stark to attend the event and for allowing us to contribute.
The Healing Consciousness Foundation (HCF), a non-profit organization, was founded by nationally recognized breast cancer surgeon, Dr. Beth Baughman DuPree. To find out more about the group and how you can help, please visit http://www.thehealingconsciousness.com/
Should you have a community event that you would like us to attend or sponsor, please contact us as we enjoy giving back to our community!
