Kelly & West Attorneys
Raleigh, NC — After years of dragging their feet, over a dozen employers have been ordered to a contempt hearing May 22 to settle a claim regarding workers’ compensation insurance for injury on the job.
Many injured workers whose companies failed to reimburse them and whose injuries became permanent have found themselves relying on welfare and Medicaid to subsist.
It’s off to jail for business owners who don’t show up at the hearing, cannot pay a portion of the claim and/or refuse to pay a portion of the claim.
This recent attempt to force employers to carry insurance comes after an investigation reported April 1 by the News and Observer. The inquiry shows that tens of thousands of employers in the state who are required to have insurance to care for injured or killed workers do not have it.
Any company with three or more employees is required to have workers’ compensation insurance.
Besides the hearing schedule for May 22, the North Carolina Industrial Commission plans to have other special hearings on the issue. The Commission has contacted about 100 employees who did not receive reimbursement when injured because their company lacked the insurance and the worker could not afford to pay a lawyer to help them collect what they were owed.
In past years, the North Carolina Industrial Commission has been lax in enforcing the insurance rules to make employers pay up. The Commission, according to the News and Observer, has “done nothing to detect employers who go on without coverage and for years has done little to punish those who won’t cover a claim when a worker gets hurt.”
Now, with definite plans to advance the process, chairwoman of the commission Pamela Young said the group means what it says about requiring employers to insure workers against injuries on the job.
Workers’ compensation laws were passed in the 1930s to make certain that businesses and manufacturers take care of their injured workers.
Source: News and Observer
If you or someone you love is injured while on the job, you can seek help from the Raleigh personal injury lawyers at Kelly & West. Our attorneys represent injured persons and help them seek the full amount of compensation for their injuries.
“Reggie Kelly is a fantastic attorney with fantastic paralegals. My wife and I have been using him and his firm since 1983 when we first purchased property in Harnett County 37 years ago. He offers excellent legal advice and guidance. He never gets in a hurry to get us out the door because of his next appointment. He always takes the time needed to check out all of the issues that might come up. Reggie Kelly is a proud American and he loves our country and he wants everyone to do well. Reggie Kelly is an even finer person than he is a fantastic attorney and we are very fortunate to also be able to call him and his wife Cheryl our friends. We give him a 10 STAR Review!”
