Hank Patterson is one of the co-chairs for today’s NCAJ 16th Annual CLE on Workplace Torts and Workers’ Compensation.  Hank is also speaking and presenting a paper entitled Structured Settlement Annuities and the N.C. Life and Health Insurance Guarantee Association.

Summary:   From the perspective of the North Carolina Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association, Senate Bill 780, enacted by the 2009 General Assembly did not accomplish its basic purpose of expanding coverage to structured settlement annuity payees. We concur. An additional amendment will be required to assure that annuity payees who are residents of North Carolina have the protection of the Guaranty Association.

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Articles, Hank Patterson, NC Legislature, NCAJ, Presentation, Structured Settlements, Workers' Compensation

Valerie Johnson is speaking at tomorrow’s NCAJ 2009 Workplace Torts and Workers’ Compensation CLE, to be held in Chapel Hill.  Valerie’s presentation topic and paper are entitled State Employee Benefits and Workers’ Comp: 2009 Update.  One of the significant changes to be discussed is that Corvel Corporation is now the administrator of workers’ comp benefits on behalf of the State, taking the place of Key Risk earlier this year.

Summary: Although the interaction between the state employee benefits system and the workers’ compensation system has some points of friction that have been the source of litigation, as a general rule, the two systems fit together fairly neatly. This paper provides a broad overview of the benefits available to state employees from the State and discusses how the receipt of workers’ compensation benefits would affect these benefits. Finally, it discusses how the careful structuring of settlements can mitigate or avoid offsets of workers’ compensation benefits against benefits from the State.

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Articles, Corvel, NCAJ, North Carolina, Presentation, State Benefits, State Employees, Valerie Johnson, Workers' Compensation

At the 25th Annual North Carolina/South Carolina Labor and Employment Law CLE held in Charleston, South Carolina, Jonathan Harkavy will present his 2008-09 annual review of the Supreme Court’s employment law cases.  His paper is entitled Supreme Court of the United States Employment Law Commentary, 2008 Term.

Summary: The 2008 Term of the Supreme Court of the United States, forged in volatile economic times and framed on a changing political palette, not only reaffirmed the Court’s interest in employment-related cases, but also revealed a growing institutional confidence in shaping employment law. While a fully coherent approach to employment disputes continued to elude the Court, it was not for lack of trying, as the Justices decided nearly a dozen cases treating some aspect of the employment relationship. Notably, these cases, many of which were determined by closely divided votes, mirror a deep philosophical fracture portrayed more broadly across the spectrum of the Court’s work. All in all, therefore, the 2008 Term was one of high interest for both the employment bar and the general public, as well as one of considerable consequence for workers, employers, and labor organizations.

Read more…

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Articles, Case Commentary, Constitutional Law, Jonathan Harkavy, Labor and Employment, NCBA, Presentation, US Supreme Court

At the 14th Annual North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference in Raleigh, which is put on the by the Industrial Commission, Hank spoke on a panel about ethics in workers’ compensation cases.  He presented a paper entitled Ethical Considerations in the Workers’ Compensation Practice, Selected Topics.

Summary: The present standards for ethical conduct by lawyers in North Carolina are found in the 1997 Revised Rules of Professional Conduct of the North Carolina State Bar. This discussion of ethical standards for workers compensation lawyers is based on these Revised Rules of Professional Conduct and applicable provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act and Rules of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. Specific ethical standards also have been adopted for other participants in the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation System.

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Articles, Ethics, Hank Patterson, Industrial Commission, Presentation, Workers' Compensation

Valerie Johnson is speaking at the 2009 annual conference of the Workers Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WLIG), to be held in Denver from October 16-19.  WILG is a national non-profit membership organization dedicated to representing the interests of injured workers.

Valerie is presenting on the “Hop Topics” panel, and will be discussing recent developments concerning the representation of undocumented workers with claims for workers’ compensation.  The paper being presented, “Benefits for Undocumented Workers and Obstacles in the Way,” written by Valerie and Narendra Ghosh, is here.  Click through for a summary of the paper: Read more…

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Articles, Case Commentary, Immigration, Narendra Ghosh, Presentation, Valerie Johnson, Workers Injury Law & Advocacy Group, Workers' Compensation

Narendra Ghosh spoke at the North Carolina Bar Association’s 2009 Fundamentals of Employment Law CLE, which was held in Greensboro.  He was part of a duo presenting an overview of the National Labor Relations Act and the possible changes to it from the long-pending Employee Free Choice Act.  Along with Tom Farr, he presented a paper entitled A Brief Introduction to Union and Employee Activities Under the NLRA and Proposed Changes Under the Employee Free Choice Act.

Summary: The National Labor Relations Act (the “Act” or the “NLRA”) guarantees the right of workers to organize and to bargain collectively with their employers, or to refrain from such activity. To enable employees to exercise these rights and to prevent labor disputes, the Act places certain limits on the activities of both employers and labor organizations.  The text that follows is an introduction to pre-certification union and employee activities under the Act, which is intended for new practitioners. In addition, this paper describes changes to the Act that have been proposed in the Employee Free Choice Act, which is currently pending in Congress. Whether changes need to be made to the Act, and what forms they should take, are hotly debated questions, and this paper aims to illuminate the contours of the debate.

Categories: General News Tags: Articles, EFCA, Labor and Employment, Narendra Ghosh, NCBA, NLRA, Presentation, Union

Burton Craige and Narendra Ghosh spoke at the North Carolina Advocates for Justice 2009 CLE on Medical Malpractice.  Burton spoke on the topic of “Defense Counsel’s Communications with Treating Physicians,” and together they spoke on the topic of “What’s the Next Step in Applying Agency Principles to Hospitals.”  They presented a paper entitled What’s the Next Step in Applying Agency Principles to Hospitals?

Summary: In Diggs v. Novant Medical, Inc., 177 N.C. App. 290, 628 S.E.2d 851 (2006), the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that a hospital could be liable under apparent agency principles for the acts of an independent contractor physician. The North Carolina appellate courts have not yet addressed the related issue of whether a hospital could be vicariously liable because the non-employee physician was performing the hospital’s non-delegable duty. This paper discusses the law regarding these theories of liability in North Carolina and other jurisdictions, as well as their potential application to a range of medical negligence cases.

Categories: General News Tags: Agency Law, Articles, Burton Craige, Medical Malpractice, Narendra Ghosh, NCAJ, Negligence, Personal Injuries, Presentation

Burton Craige spoke at a North Carolina Bar Association CLE on Sex, Family, and the Constitution, which was put together by the NCBA Constitutional Rights & Responsibilities and Family Law Sections.  He spoke on the topic of child custody by non-biological parents.  He presented a paper, written along with Narendra Ghosh, entitled Custody Disputes Between Natural Parents and Third Parties: Mason, Estroff, and Heatzig and Beyond.  Burton was one the of the lawyers for the plaintiff in Heatzig.

Summary: With increasing frequency, state courts have been confronted with custody disputes between the biological mother and a former same-sex partner who shared the responsibility of raising the child. In 2008, the North Carolina appellate courts addressed the issue for the first time. In a trio of unanimous decisions – Mason v. Dwinnell, Estroff v. Chatterjee, and Heatzig v. MacLean – the North Carolina Court of Appeals defined the circumstances in which the former partner would be entitled to a custody determination based on the best interest of the child. Because the opinions apply the law to three sets of facts, they provide especially helpful guidance to attorneys and the trial courts.

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Appeals, Articles, Burton Craige, Case Commentary, Constitutional Law, Family Law, Narendra Ghosh, NCBA, Presentation

Burton Craige has written an article, entitled Reforming and Clarifying the Products Liability Statute of Repose, for an issue of Trial Briefs, the publication of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. The article discusses possible reform of the time-limit law for lawsuits about defective products that injure people.

Summary: If Elaine had lived anywhere else in the United States, she could have brought suit against the SUV manufacturer. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have no statute of repose for products liability actions. Four states establish a presumptive ten- or twelve-year statute of repose that can be rebutted by evidence that the “useful safe life” of the product is longer or shorter. Two states establish a rebuttable presumption of no negligence if the product was first sold more than a certain period of time before the injury. Ten states have a fixed statute of repose that is significantly longer than North Carolina’s, ranging from ten to fifteen years. That leaves North Carolina as the lonely outlier. Saddled with an inflexible six-year statute of repose, North Carolinians have less protection against defective products than any other United States citizens.

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Articles, Burton Craige, NC Legislature, NCAJ, Personal Injuries, Products Liability, Statute of Repose

Burton Craige has written an article, entitled Should North Carolina Enact the Uniform Apportionment of Tort Responsibility Act?, for an issue of Trial Briefs, the publication of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. The article discusses possible reform of contributory negligence, and related laws for personal injury and negligence cases.

Summary: North Carolina is one of only five jurisdictions that retain the antiquated doctrine of contributory negligence. Here, as in Alabama, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, a plaintiff whose negligence makes the slightest contribution to his injury is barred from recovering any damages against the tortfeasor. The other 46 states, either by judicial decision or by statute, have adopted some form of comparative fault, allocating damages based on the degree of fault among the plaintiff and the defendants. In 2007, four Republican state legislators introduced a bill to adopt UATRA in North Carolina. The proposed legislation would revolutionize North Carolina tort law by ending contributory negligence, adopting a system of comparative fault, and modifying joint and several liability. Legislators are likely to reintroduce the bill in 2009. If North Carolina adopts UATRA, it will be the first state to do so.

Categories: News of the Firm Tags: Articles, Burton Craige, Contributory Negligence, NC Legislature, NCAJ, Personal Injuries