The Black Lung Benefits Act is an act specifically designed to compensate coal miners who develop pneumoconiosis, or Black Lung.
Black Lung is caused by inhaling coal dust for long periods of time. Older coal miners are more likely to show symptoms of Black Lung since younger workers are protected by the more rigid safety standards now implemented in mines after the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. The name Black Lung comes from the black look of miners’ lungs as compared to healthy pink lungs of other people.
Younger miners do still run the risk of developing Black Lung. Coal dust can still build up within the lungs, causing the lungs to stop working as effectively.
Symptoms of Black Lung include:
Shortness of breath
Thickening and scarring of the lungs
Heart failure
Emphysema
Enlargement of the heart on the right side
Unfortunately, there is no cure for Black Lung. Miners diagnosed with the disease can prevent further injury by removing themselves from dust exposure immediately.
The Black Lung Benefits Act covers:
Cost of treatment
Services and supplies related to the illness
Disability
Benefits to eligible survivors/dependents
Treatment for Black Lung patients include prescription drugs, doctor and hospital visits, and any home nursing or medical equipment.
The Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) is part of the U.S. Department of Labor and regulates workers compensation, including programs such as:
Division of Federal Employees’ Compensation
State Workers’ Compensation Boards
Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation
Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation
Division of Coal Mine Workers’ Compensation
The office is responsible for helping workers receive compensation for injuries or illnesses they sustained while at work.
When employees are injured (and after they have received necessary emergency medical treatment), the best first step is to call a personal injury attorney. With their attorney, employees will file an injury report. The report must be filed within a certain time frame, typically less than three years after the injury, illness or death.
After the injury report has been filed, it is reviewed by the OWCP and the employee receives compensation. Compensation comes in many different forms, including:
COP
Disability
Medical
Death Benefits
COP is a program that gives employees their regular pay for up to 45 calendar days while the employee recovers fro the injury. Employees who become ill at work are not eligible for this program.
Disability programs vary. Some programs pay between 60 and 70 percent of the worker’s salary, while others pay the difference if the employee has to take a lower paying job.
Medical programs cover federal employees. Compensation includes anything prescribed or recommended by physicians to treat and cure the employee.
Finally, Death benefits are given to survivors of an employee who dies because of a work-related incident. These benefits cover most related expenses, including funeral expenses.
Maritime Law is also known as Admiralty Law, and it refers specifically to injuries and incidents that happen at sea. It regulates both recreational and commercial vessels, including cruise ships, fishing boats, personal watercrafts, oilrigs and yachts.
Unlike employees who work on land, seamen are not covered by typical Workers’ Compensation. Instead, they are protected under Maritime Law. This means when they are injured or when they die at sea, Maritime Law applies to their case.
There are many aspects that make Maritime Law difficult to apply to some cases. For example, the law depends upon where the body of water in question is located. Small lakes and rivers do not fit within Maritime Law categories, but larger bodies of water, like the Great Lakes, do.
Also, the type of legal claim filed is important. Maritime Law covers repairs to vessels, injuries to seamen, wrongful deaths, etc. However, it is not always easy to figure out what type of claim to file and what kind of time frame you have to file it under.
Personal injury attorneys who specialize in Maritime Law are great to have on your side if you are injured at sea. They can help apply aspects of Maritime Law including:
Maintenance and Cure, which means the seamen is entitled to receive compensation for medical treatment and lost wages
The Jones Act, which allows seamen to receive past and future wages as well as compensation for pain and suffering
Unseaworthiness doctrine, which allows seamen to file suits if the vessel they worked on is deemed unseaworthy
It is important to work closely with a personal injury attorney to decide what type of Maritime Law best suits your situation.
The Jones Act is specifically designed to protect people who work at sea on ships, vessels, barges, tanks and platforms. Seamen can sustain many different types of injuries, including broken bones, concussions, burns, drowning and death.
Unfortunately, seamen can sustain injuries because of negligence on the part of their employers or their coworkers. This includes operating vessels or machinery that are not seaworthy or are defective, not providing adequate safety equipment or training, and not adhering to safety standards.
When seamen are injured while working at sea, the Jones Act allows them to seek compensation for their injuries, a lot like land-based employees can use the Workers Compensation Act. The Jones Act allows seamen to seek compensation for injuries, medical bills, lost wages and loss of equipment.
Usually, there are two reasons seamen file claims with their personal injury attorneys using the Jones Act:
1. Unseaworthiness
2. Negligence
When a vessel is unseaworthy, it is not fit for its intended use. It could also mean that parts of the vessel or equipment on the vessel is defective, worn or damaged to the point that it is not safe. A seaworthy vessel must also include safety gear for all its passengers.
Negligence means that the captain, owner, or coworkers acted in a way that caused the injury. Negligence means they put someone else in harm’s way without carefully considering the consequences.
The Death on the High Seas Act was designed to allow families and dependents of people killed at sea to recover damages. It was originally implemented in 1920 to help widows of seamen who depended upon their husbands for earnings.
Currently, the act allows family members to collect damages (lost future earnings) only if they relied upon the deceased family member for income. However, that is being argued in a Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, the act can also compensate people for any emotional damages they suffer due to the loss of a family member.
The act is particularly important for people who work and vacation at sea. The act has been used to help compensate family members of lost seamen, oilrig workers, plane crash victims and even cruise ship vacationers.
The act typically covers any death that occurs beyond three nautical miles from the shore. Damages awarded represent the actual or projected value that the deceased family member would have received in income. For dependent children, the value of care and guidance they have lost is taken into consideration as well.
Experienced personal injury attorneys can help determine if this law applies to you and whether you qualify for compensation. They can also help determine the amount of damages you should receive.
Personal injuries due to negligence are those that occur because someone else wasn’t careful. Negligence means you or a loved one didn’t receive appropriate care, unnecessary mistakes were made, or you were harmed because of someone’s laziness or intentional ignorance.
Negligence means:
A person fails to act in a reasonable manner, which
Results in someone else’s injury or property damage.
An accident can be an act of negligence as well. The person who causes harm doesn’t need to be acting illegally to be at fault. It just means he or she didn’t take reasonable care to avoid injuring someone else. This can range from everything from not tying down debris in the back of a pickup truck to no cleaning up broken glass on the ground where other people walk.
Personal injuries caused by negligence can result in high medical expenses and a lifetime of pain and suffering. They affect not only the person injured, but also their friends and family. Personal injuries are costly to heal, time-consuming to overcome, and emotionally and physically draining to everyone involved.
It’s important to contact a personal injury attorney to find out if you have a negligence case. Claims typically have to be filed a short period of time after the injury occurs.
Medical expenses are often difficult to pay, and families become burdened by bills after multiple or serious injuries and illnesses. As people age and as families grow larger, medical expenses also increase. However, not all medical expenses are the patient’s responsibility. In cases of medical malpractice and product recall, doctors, hospitals and manufacturers should bear the brunt, if not all, of the medical expense.
Medical expenses are often not completely covered by insurance companies when they should be. Sometimes, in cases of insurance fraud, insurance companies will not pay medical expenses that they are suppose to cover. This often happens when medical expenses are incurred after automobile accidents or when patients file worker’s compensation claims.
When choosing an insurance provider, you should be careful to read the fine print, be wary of paying in cash or providing a year’s worth of payments, and avoid signing a blank insurance form.
Make sure you know which medical expenses are deductible on your taxes as well, and choose the right tax forms. You can deduct payments for diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment and prevention of your illness or injury, which includes any mental illness. However, medical expenses must total more than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income before you can claim medical expenses as a deduction on your tax forms.
Most importantly, know your rights. Medical expenses might not be your responsibility if:
there has been medical malpractice, such as negligence and failure to accurately diagnose, treat or prevent an illness
you receive an injury that could have been prevented under certain circumstances, such as dog bites; injuries from a car, plane or motorcycle accident; injuries from defective products; falls; work-related accidents; assaults; chemical or asbestos exposure, etc.
you are a recipient of a recalled medical device
you believe your insurance company is supposed to pay
medical expenses are deductible on your tax forms and amount to more than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income
This list does not include all of the possible instances for which someone else should pay your medical expenses. Contact a medical malpractice attorney or a personal injury attorney so that you can better understand your rights.
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