Personal Injury Alert!

In a Blog, it cited the case of a young schoolboy who died tragically because of a trash compactor system.

The news was an unpleasant one. It shocks the entire community and serves as a wake up call, for us to be more conscious about our actuations so that we could dispense with like events from happening.

As can be gleaned from the tragic event, the surviving family members are too wary and sad about the demise. To them, the event was considered a disaster.

On different light, in legal parlance, the sullen death can be categorized under the broad area of wrongful death. The surviving family members are given by law the right to claim compensation and damages against the person responsible for the unlawful death.

The law gave the family, some legal remedy to compensate the loss of thier love one. This might appear as a mere consolation but mind you, this is the valuable compensation for the surviving family of wrongful death victim.

The process for a claim in wrongful death can be long and tedious. As an additional note, the process are far from simple, they are complex. Probably, though, this might be true in all kinds of torts litigations. Anyway, to be realistic about it, professional help can be employed in this respect- a personal injury lawyer to be precise.

On personal view, all of us have a share in all the things that happened, be it or bad, in this world that we live in. We can be the outright suspect when a tragic event like this happens. We cannot push the sole blame to the governemt or its officials or even to the law enforcers. We can blame nobody except ourselves. We all to blame.

Losing a loved one in a catastrophic accident can be very painful. Yet, the suffering can be more painful if the cause of such death is covered in a mysterious incident. The point here is, aside from the insurmountable loss, you may not have a clue on who can you charge in court.

Let say for an example, the mysterious death of a college student somewhere in New Jersey, until now, the authorities assigned to the case are still puzzled on what is the true cause. Speculations say that the 19-year old victim died due to an accident caused by a trash compactor system.

Later, the victim’s family pinpointed the state, trash compactor operator and the school for their negligence in the said incident. Along with this, they have pursued the necessary legal action and filed their wrongful death lawsuit.

However, as I viewed it, the victim’s family may experience some difficulties in proving the guilt of the dependants. We all know that in any lawsuit the plaintiffs have to provide sufficient evidences to support their cases.

Primarily, in a wrongful death action, the plaintiffs should prove the following to recover damages and obtain justified solutions to their legal battle:

• the defendants have their duty to implement safety
• such duty has been violated and such violation has been the proximate cause of an accident
• the accident has resulted to the death of a person

With this scenario, the bereaved family has lesser chances of winning their case. Their wrongful death lawyer may also be put in a difficult situation of recreating the scene of the accident and formulating a winnable case. It will be extremely difficult for the counsel to develop a case if the authorities themselves are not certain of the cause.

Because of these happenings, the family of the victim may just have to wait for some time, until the police have found some evidences that may have a link to the case. It will also be helpful if they will find some witnesses that will be able to testify on the true cause of the unexplained death of the victim.

Injuries incurred in the workplace are often compensated under the workers compensation benefits. These injuries are generally referred to as occupational injury. Compensable injuries are those injuries which arise out of accidents in the course of one’s employment. This means that the injury must have occurred at work and work-related.

To differentiate a work-related injury from a personal injury, here is an illustration. If one sustains an injury while running an errand for an employer, an employee may benefit from the worker’s compensation benefits. On the other hand, if one gets involved in an accident on the premises of one’s job location during breaks or lunch time, the injury may not be covered by the said benefits. 

Therefore, to be compensated for an injury through the workers compensation, the harm must have been the result of an accident while at work or during the performance of one’s duties.

However, there are also other compensable injuries which may be the result of repeated or “cumulative trauma”, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and conditions which are the result of prolonged exposure to toxic substances.

Under California Labor Code Section 3700, an injured worker is entitled to workers compensation benefits, which has five basic types - medical care, temporary disability benefits, permanent disability benefits, vocational rehabilitation services, and death benefits.

But despite being an orderly and organized system, there are often many issues which complicate the efficient and cost-effective implementation of workers’ compensation in California.

Among those issues are:

• type and scope of coverage
• determination of injury or illness
• benefit amounts
• the cost to employers of insurance premiums
• cost of vocational rehabilitation; fraud on the part of doctors, workers and employers
• Timeliness of benefit payments
• Issues about uncovered workers

In considering how the system works, it is also necessary to know the role of other so-called players involved in the implementation of the workers compensation system in the state.

These include the following sectors of the working class:

• injured workers
• insurance companies
• labor unions and workers’ organizations
• employers and employer organizations
• attorneys and their organizations
• the medical profession
• the state agencies that regulate and implement the program such as the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, Department of Insurance, Department of Industrial Relations and its various divisions, including the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the Division of Workers’ Compensation, the State Compensation Insurance Fund, and the Insurance Commissioner.