ORIGINS

The Ohio worker’s compensation law has had a major impact to business and society throughout its history. Just as any law it has been refined and polished numerous times. The law has gone through many changes in its evolution to what your worker’s compensation lawyer at Malek & Malek has become today.

Worker’s compensation sprouted in Ohio, after a nationwide investigation into industrial injuries. After the results of the investigation became known a constitutional amendment was passed by Ohio voters in 1911. This amendment created a voluntary worker’s compensation program for employers. If the employer decided to participate on the program they were held liable to pay 90% of the employee’s premium while the employee had to cover the remaining 10%. There were two built in exceptions that would cause the employer to be held completely liable; they were: if the injuries were caused by the employer’s failure to comply with an ordinance, lawful order, or statute for the protection of the lives or safety of employees (lawful requirement), and also injuries caused by the willful act of the employer. This created a very lenient program for the employer if they decided to even join the program at all.

Continue reading Ohio Workers’ Compensation: The Historical Compromise

IMPLICATIONS

There has been a lot of news recently about automated cars. The wizards at Google have been testing driver less cars for years now. Many current cars on the road already incorporate safety systems which at least echo elements of autonomous cars. Some of the more notable systems are blind-spot detection, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control. Adaptive cruise control is interesting in that it will speed up and slow down based upon the surrounding traffic. I think the technology will be perfected to the point where driver less cars are pretty dependable and at least as safe as or safer than a “reasonable person.”

So what does this mean for Columbus car accident lawyers? Well a fully autonomous car will not get distracted by updating Facebook, tweeting, texting while driving. No drunk driving, drunk folks will get in their driver less cars and be driven home. There will not be elderly people jamming on the accelerator, where they meant to press the brakes. There won’t be truck drivers driving far beyond the hours they are meant to drive, falling asleep, and causing catastrophic truck accidents. So will you still need an experienced and competent Columbus personal injury attorney? Probably, but at that point instead of a negligence claim against the driver, the victim of an accident may be suing a manufacturer for a defective product.

Continue reading Self-Driving Cars, the end of Auto Accidents ?

THE SETUP

In the last entry we were talking about treatment and diagnostics. So lets assume that your doctor has submitted a C9 requesting two different things. For the sake of this example, the C9 will be requesting an MRI of the lumbar spine and an epidural steroid injection. Let us also assume the only allowed condition in the claim is a lumbar sprain.

So here’s the scenario, Joe the Warehouse Worker is packing inventory into cardboard boxes and carrying them over to a conveyor belt. Joe goes to pick up a box, as he is lifting the box he feels a pinch in his back. He continues working throughout the day and he continues to feel more pain and discomfort in his lower back. He tries going into work the next day, but he just cannot get up. Joe calls his boss and explains that he injured his back at the warehouse.

Joe goes to the emergency room. They prescribe some pain killers and muscle relaxers. Joe doesn’t really understand what to do next so he comes to us, the Columbus Workers’ Compensation Attorneys at Malek & Malek.

Continue reading Workers’ Comp: Showdown at the Ohio Industrial Commission: Part Two

There was a massive fire at an industrial business on the Southside of Columbus. The pictures are reminiscent of volcanoes erupting.Power was shut down for about 20k according to an article on  10 TV . Our office was one of the 20k customers whose power was affected.

The article mentions that sparks from a forklift caused some pallets to catch fire. Must have been pretty extreme sparks.

I actually drove past the particular business affected last Thursday as I had a matter I had to handle for a client. There are a bunch of different business and workshops in that area. I hope the employees still have a job to go to. Anyways be safe everyone.