Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Post-Accident Pinched Nerves

Clients often come to me with questions about injuries resulting from car accidents. The most common type of injury complaint that I see here in Mississippi is pinched nerves. There are a wide variety of factors that influence whether you will be compensated for a pinched nerve after an accident. One thing is critical to know—you will need to have experienced personal injury counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation from a car accident injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

What is a Pinched Nerve?

A car accident involves a tremendous amount of trauma to the body. Swelling, broken bones, and contusions are a common, immediate effect. However, when the swelling goes down, bruises disappear, and the bones heal, other injuries can appear for the first time.  That is because that trauma and prolonged swelling can result in nerves being compressed by a bone, a ligament, tendons, or soft tissue during the recovery process. While the initial injury may heal, the nerve pain persists. You may have heard of sciatica, which is the most common variety of pinched nerve. It is caused by the sciatic nerve, which runs down the back to the legs. A back injured in a car accident can turn into sciatica over time.

Recovering for Pinched Nerve Injuries after an Accident

Some injuries are clearly caused by the trauma of a car accident—broken limbs, bruises, cuts from broken glass. These are the easiest injuries to recover compensation for, as they have an obvious cause, the impact of your vehicle against some object. Pinched nerves, by comparison, are far less obvious in their origin. First, they often do not arise until weeks have passed, so they are not as closely linked to the accident in time. Second, sitting at a desk all day can also cause a pinched nerve, so their presence after an accident does not necessarily mean that they were caused by an accident. If you are seeking compensation for a pinched nerve, expect an opposing insurance company to claim that the condition was caused by your lifestyle and predated the accident.

The takeaway from all of this is that attaining a complete medical examination after an accident is critical. Even if you feel alright, it is important to get a benchmark against which subsequent injuries that arise can be measured. For example, if you have a medical exam and indicate that you do not have back or nerve pain at that time, it will be easier to prove that subsequent sciatica pain was caused by the accident and not some preexisting injury. This is vital if you hope to recover compensation for the pain you have experienced.

What Should You Do If You Were Injured?

Getting in a car accident can be traumatic and confusing.  Even if you are not seriously injured, you should seek out medical attention. Hopefully, no serious nerve pain develops. But if you do suffer from subsequent nerve pain, contact an experienced personal injury attorney so that you can focus on yourself and on healing. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, dealing with worker’s compensation, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with insurance companies. These are important tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a workplace injury.

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and insurance companies that are focused on denying your compensation for the injury you experienced.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

/by

Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Factors Affecting a Neck Injury Settlement

Clients often come to me with questions about neck injuries, which are the most common injury I see resulting from motor vehicle accidents. Unfortunately, people are often misled about how much they can expect from a neck injury settlement. There are a wide variety of factors that influence what sort of payment you can expect to receive. One thing is critical to know—you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation from a neck injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

What Factors Affect the Amount of a Neck Injury Claim?

Obviously, we all have tweaked our neck a bit from time to time after a night on a lumpy hotel bed. Compare that injury with a severed spinal cord and you will immediately see that there is a wide spectrum of “neck injuries.” The severity of the neck injury is the primary factor in determining the amount that you will be compensated for an accident—the more severe the injury, the greater the compensation. The severity of the injury also takes into account the amount of pain endured, the activities inhibited, whether a job was lost, and medical costs incurred. But even if an injury is severe, it does not mean that the injured party will be compensated.  How can that be?  Four factors come into play to affect recovery.

First, the person who injured you must have been negligent.  If you were at fault for your injury, or even partially at fault, your compensation will be reduced proportionally.  For example, if you were injured in a car accident, but were looking at your phone at the time, it is unlikely that you will recover full compensation for your injury, as you were partially at fault.

Second, you must be injured by someone with insurance to cover your claim. Even if the person who injured you was entirely at fault, if they no insurance, you will recover nothing. Even if they have insurance, your recovery will often be capped by their liability coverage caps.

Third, along the same lines as the above, if you are injured by a corporate entity, such as a driver for a national corporation, you are far more likely to recover money than from an individual of limited means.

Fourth, your attorney must be experienced enough to understand the value of your neck injury. Even if you have a good claim, an inexperienced attorney can make mistakes that cost you dearly. For example, inexperienced attorneys often take initial offers in neck injury cases, because they want a quick return on their work. However, you may have long-lasting or late-emerging side effects of your injury. You deserve compensation for those injuries, but they may go uncompensated for if your attorney urges you to take the initial offer from an experienced defense counsel or insurance company.

What Should You Do If You Suffered a Neck Injury?

If you have a neck injury, focus on yourself and on healing.  Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with insurance companies. These are important tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a neck injury.

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and insurance companies that are focussed on denying your compensation for the neck injury you experienced.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

/by

Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains On-the-Job Injuries

Clients often come to me with questions about injuries they suffered at work. This is not a surprise given the number of physically punishing careers. But even people who work in offices or in low-intensity jobs can have work-related injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and slips and falls. There are a wide variety of factors that influence whether you will be compensated for a workplace injury in Mississippi and how much. One thing is critical to know—you will need to have experienced personal injury counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation from a workplace injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

What Type of Claim?

In Mississippi, you may be eligible for worker’s compensation if you are injured in the workplace, including traveling for work. However, if you are negligently harmed by a third party in the workplace—such as a client or coworker—or if your employer injures you negligently, you may pursue both a worker’s compensation claim and a lawsuit for negligence against the party that injured you. Deciding whether a worker’s compensation claim or lawsuit or both is appropriate will require the help of an attorney.

Documentation Is Critical

Report all work injuries immediately. The longer you wait to report the injury, the greater the chance that your employer or a third party will claim that some intervening act—such as a slip and fall at home—caused your injury. You want to be able to show that your injury was directly caused by either the workplace or some third party in the workplace. Your employer may have a policy about immediately reporting injuries; follow it and make sure to get a copy of whatever report you file.

Seek Medical Attention Immediately

You must attain medical treatment immediately. As in the case of reporting the accident, you want to establish a clear causal connection between the workplace or third party and your medical condition. Delaying medical care weakens that connection and can make it more difficult for a doctor to link whatever injury you are suffering from to the incident that actually caused it.

Attend Follow-Up Appointments and Keep Records of Those Appointments

If you fail to attend follow-up medical appointments, that failure could give rise to the notion that your injury is not as severe as you portrayed. Failing to attend those appointments can also lead to the belief that your injuries were made worse by your failure to attend to them responsibly.  Once you commence a course of care, stick with it until it a medical professional directs you to stop.

Can I Be Compensated for My Workplace Injury?

Under Mississippi worker’s compensation, your medical costs, lost wages, and ongoing treatment will be paid to you if your worker’s compensation claim is granted. This may make you whole in relation to the expenses associated with your injury. But if your employer or a third party harmed you negligently, you may be due money for pain and suffering, future loss of compensation, permanent disability, punitive damages, and other claims. To receive payment for these losses, you will likely need to file a negligence lawsuit against the party who injured you. You should seek the advice of experienced counsel to determine which path forward is appropriate based on your facts.

What Should You Do If You Were Injured?

If you suffer a workplace injury, focus on yourself and on healing. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, dealing with worker’s compensation, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with insurance companies. These are important tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a workplace injury.

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and insurance companies that are focused on denying your compensation for the injury you experienced.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

/by

Experienced Mississippi Auto Accident Attorney Explains: How Can Cell Phone Records Help You After an Auto Accident?

As anyone who drives in Mississippi knows, too many people use their phones while they drive. Worse yet, too many accidents are caused by those distracted drivers, often resulting in serious accidents or death. The question is how does one prove that the party that caused your accident was distracted by their phone and that you were not? This may be crucial evidence in your case, and having experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation is critical if you are harmed in a distracted driver auto accident. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

Data from cell phones may be the critical piece of evidence that proves that the person who injured you in an accident is at fault. In turn, it may also prove that you were not at fault, which is sometimes equally important. Attaining that evidence will require the help of counsel experienced with automobile accidents and interpreting cell phone data.

What is the “Negligence” Standard?

Almost everyone has a cell phone. So you can be assured that if you were injured in a car accident, there is almost guaranteed to bet at least one phone associated with that other car, if not more. Finding out if the driver was using his or her phone at the time of the crash is vital to establishing negligence, which is the legal standard for fault in this sort of incident. “Negligence” means that a person did not meet the standard of care that a reasonable person would adhere to under the circumstances. If a driver was distracted by a cellular phone at the time of the accident, they cannot meet that standard of care and will be found to be negligent.

What Type of Records?

We all get a cell phone bill. While accurate enough for billing purposes, cell phone bills do not have the level of accuracy required for court. They are accurate within a minute, but most accidents are decided based on seconds. Instead, with the help of experienced counsel, you can attain Call Detail Records (CDR), which provide accuracy down to the second.  Because you will need to establish that the driver that hit you was distracted at the very moment they impacted with you, filing a subpoena or court order to attain CDR’s will be vital to your case. Determining whether the cell phone company whose records you are trying to see requires a simple subpoena or a court order is important to understand; either way, they can be attained by your attorney.

What Should You Do If You Are Injured By a Distracted Driver?

To best position your case, your attorney needs to start trying to attain cell phone records immediately after your accident. Filing a subpoena or for a court order for the cell phone company’s records and making sure that they are preserved is important, as, like most routine records, cell phone records are usually destroyed or erased on a schedule.  So time is of the essence.  Preserving this evidence is crucial to proving the other driver’s negligence, so do not hesitate.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi auto accident law firm, to represent you if you were injured or harmed by a distracted driver.

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and insurance companies that are focussed on denying your compensation for the harm you experienced. We are skilled at attaining cell phone evidence and presenting it in a manner to best position your case.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

/by

Mississippi Whistleblower Lawyer Advises: What Are the Protections Offered by the SEC Whistleblower Program?

It can be terrifying to become aware of fraud within the corporation that employs you. Choosing to expose that fraud and become a whistleblower means risking your livelihood, friendship with colleagues, and financial security. Once you become a whistleblower and an investigation into the fraud commences, there is a serious chance that you will feel the wrath of those you have exposed. Loss of employment, punitive or disciplinary action, and defamation are just some of the forms of retaliation that whistleblowers sometimes experience. Luckily, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Whistleblower Program has anti-retaliation protections in place.

Clients who are thinking of becoming whistleblowers often ask about the anti-retaliation provisions of the SEC’s program, so I have described them fully below:

Potential vs. Proven Securities Fraud

The SEC receives many, many whistleblower claims for every one that ends up being investigated and prosecuted. In the end, a small fraction of whistleblowers’ reports of securities fraud actually result in a rewards. Thus, if only those whistleblower’s whose cases that resulted in a successful prosecution received anti-retaliation protection, then there could be a significant chilling effect on reporting in general. Luckily, that is not the way it works, and as long as you are making a good faith report of “potential” securities fraud on the appropriate forms to the SEC, you receive anti-retaliation protection.

An Example of Retaliation and Its Consequences

In the Matter of Paradigm Capital Management, Inc. and Candace King Weir, File No. 3-15930 (June 16, 2014), provides an excellent example of what can happen in an SEC whistleblower case as described in the SEC’s press release:

The whistleblower in this matter suffered unique hardships, including retaliation, as a result of reporting to the Commission.

The SEC charged Paradigm with retaliating against the whistleblower after the firm learned that the whistleblower reported potential misconduct to the Commission.  Paradigm immediately engaged in a series of retaliatory actions against the whistleblower including removing the whistleblower from the whistleblower’s then-current position, tasking the whistleblower with investigating the very conduct the whistleblower reported to the SEC, changing the whistleblower’s job function, stripping the whistleblower of supervisory responsibilities, and otherwise marginalizing the whistleblower.

The whistleblower will receive over $600,000 for providing key original information that led to the successful SEC enforcement action.

Ant-Retaliation Protection Takes Effect Upon Submission of a Claim to the SEC

The anti-retaliatory protections of the SEC Whistleblower Program take effect as soon as the whistleblower claim is filed.  It does not matter whether the SEC ever investigates  or acts on the complaint whatsoever.  However, once again, it is crucial that you submit your claim to the SEC properly and on the correct forms.  Having experienced whistleblower counsel by your side to make that filing and ensure that the anti-retaliation protection kicks in is vital to protecting your livelihood.

What If I Don’t Qualify for an Award, But Want Retaliation Protection?

It is not settled where the line is between who can be a whistleblower to the SEC—not everyone can be—and who can receive whistleblower protection. As you can imagine, there is a large group of people who are not eligible for whistleblower protections, including some auditors, attorneys, and senior leadership. But while this group may not qualify for an award, they may still be eligible for anti-retaliation protection if they bring securities fraud within their corporation to the SEC’s attention.

What Should You Do if You are Considering a Whistleblower Claim?

Are you considering filing an SEC whistleblower case? To attain your compensation, you will require the help of an experienced whistleblower attorney to decide whether the conduct you have observed constitutes fraud. Evidence gathering, dealing with the federal government’s attorneys, important deadlines, and filing requirements make your representation both complex and time-sensitive.

Call Barrett Law now at (601) 790-1505 if you think you may be an SEC whistleblower.

Having expert legal advice by your side can mean the difference between receiving your share of a whistleblower judgment and losing your career and livelihood. Call us today.

 

/by

Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains What Makes a Strong Personal Injury Case?

As a personal injury attorney, injured people often meet with me to ask whether they have a strong case or not. As a result, I thought it would be useful to describe what makes a strong personal injury case in Mississippi. One thing is critical to state up front—you will need to have experienced personal injury counsel help you attain any settlement. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505. Below are the characteristics of a strong personal injury case.

What is Negligence?

Believe it or not, but accidents do happen. There is a difference between something accidentally or unavoidably occurring and negligence. You cannot recover damages based simply on an unfortunate, unavoidable occurrence, but you may be able to recover a tremendous settlement once negligence is established. But how is negligence different from an accident? Negligence means that a person did not act as a reasonable person would under the circumstances.

Take a car accident. Imagine that you are hit from behind by a person who consumed three beers before getting behind the wheel and who was watching a movie on his phone while he drove. That is clearly negligent behavior because it is far below the standard of behavior that society would expect from a reasonable person. However, if a different person hits you from behind because you stopped short, and their car was in good condition and their tires were brand new, and they were sober and attentive, you may be able to recover from their insurance carrier, but you will have a difficult time demonstrating that their behavior was negligent, as it was reasonable under the circumstances.

What is Comparative Negligence?

Conversely, were you at all at fault?  If you have been drinking, were unable to avoid the injury because you were distracted, or were in some other way partially to blame, your potential financial recovery will be reduced by the degree to which you were at fault. This is the legal theory of comparative negligence, meaning that each party’s own negligence is weighed against them when fault is distributed.

Are Your Injuries Serious?

While you can recover compensation for any injury, the incredible amount of time, effort, and expense that goes into a personal injury case is really only justified by a serious or long-term injury. See a medical professional and determine both the immediate and possible long-term effects of your injury. If they are not significant, count yourself as lucky. But minor or short-lived injuries are rarely worth litigating.

Can the Person Who Injured You Compensate You?

As the old saying goes, you cannot get blood from a turnip.  That means that no matter how negligent the person was who injured you and how blameless you were, you cannot recover from someone who is unable to pay. This is why I advise all clients to have uninsured motorist coverage on their car, which allows you to be compensated even if the person who injures you in a car accident does not have insurance. But if a person has no assets, little or no money, and no homeowner’s insurance, there is little point in trying to sue them.

What Should You Do If You Were Injured?

If you were injured by a third party, contact an experienced personal injury attorney so that you can focus on yourself and on healing. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, dealing with worker’s compensation, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with insurance companies. These are important tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury.

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and insurance companies that are focussed on denying your compensation for the injury you experienced.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

/by

Mississippi Whistleblower Lawyer Advises: What Does the Future for Cryptocurrency Whistleblowers?

With the amount of press around Bitcoin’s meteoric rise and subsequent plummet, my future-looking clients here in Mississippi have asked me whether these “cryptocurrencies’” are subject to the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) whistleblower program. The answer is that they may be. The SEC stated in a July 2017 investigative report that “virtual tokens and coins may be securities subject to federal securities laws.” What that means is that fraud occurring in the context of initial coin offerings (“ICOs”) or other aspects of the creation or management of crypto currencies may be subject to the SEC’s whistleblower program.

A New Form of Money: Blockchain Technology

To understand how a whistleblower action might be brought in relation to a cryptocurrency ICO, you first must understand a bit about how cryptocurrencies work. Unlike traditional currencies that are created or “minted” by a country and are tied to some national monetary policy, cryptocurrencies are secured by blockchain technology. The security of the blockchain is their foundation and is what gives them worth.

But what is blockchain? Blockchains are a secure, electronic way of recording individual transactions. Each block in a chain contains data about a transaction between individuals—every transaction, in turn, is recorded and reflects the previous transactions that came before. The foundation of blockchain technology is the “linked’ nature of a chain.  That linked nature creates a more secure environment for transactions, as it is not possible to change the records pertaining to a block, or record, in the extensive list of records without also altering all of the previous blocks. The blocks, in turn, are stored across a network of computers so that any change to the blocks would require complete coordination of those computers. This level of complexity also provides security. In the past, the strength of nations and their central banks acted as the foundation of a currency, now it is the strength of a currency’s computing capacity and mathematics.

Whistleblowers’ Roles in Blockchain ICO’s

Because of the somewhat mysterious nature of an ICO, the SEC has to rely on those working within the cryptocurrencies themselves to police them. The SEC’s whistleblower program allows those working within cryptocurrencies who have knowledge of securities violations to help the government stop fraud by offering a bounty equal to 10 to 30 percent of the penalties that the SEC collects if the total exceeds $1 million.

What Should You Do if You are Considering an ICO Whistleblower Claim?

For those working on ICO’s or within cryptocurrencies, the SEC is interested in knowing about fraud. There is more to filing a whistleblower case than just knowing about ICO fraud, however. All of the extensive rules that apply to the SEC whistleblower program will apply here as well. Specifically, you must have unique information that the SEC does not already have, and you must be the first to alert them to the fraud. To attain your compensation, you will require the help of an experienced whistleblower attorney to decide whether the conduct you have observed constitutes fraud. Evidence gathering, dealing with the federal government’s attorneys, important deadlines, and filing requirements make your representation both complex and time-sensitive. Barrett Law has this experience and is standing by to ease any concerns you may have about becoming a whistleblower.

Call Barrett Law now at (601) 790-1505 if you think you may be an ICO or cryptocurrency whistleblower.

Having expert legal advice by your side can mean the difference between receiving your share of a whistleblower judgment and losing your career and livelihood. Call us today.

 

 

/by

Experienced Mississippi BP Oil Spill Attorney Provides Claims 2018 Update

Now approaching eight years since the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, clients still come to me with questions regarding the current state of affairs regarding Oil Spill payments to residents and workers of the Gulf Coast region. An excellent and informative January article in Insurance Journal, BP Still Paying Gulf Oil Spill Claims as Court Battles Wind Down provides an excellent and up-to-date overview. In short, the number of cases pending is going down, but the amount that BP projects paying in 2018 is rising.

In 2015, BP agreed to settle all claims with the U.S. federal and state governments in a $21 billion dollar settlement. Pursuant to that settlement, the company will pay out that amount over roughly twenty years. Recent payments have been substantial, with BP paying out $1.7 billion for the fourth quarter in 2017 and an anticipated payment of another $3 billion in 2018. The company’s spill-related payouts will rise to $3 billion in 2018 from an earlier estimate of $2 billion, while those for 2017 will remain at $5.5 billion.

Obviously, this is a tremendous amount of money aimed at helping the Gulf region and those harmed by the spill, having experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of that settlement is critical if you were harmed. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

From Insurance Journal:

BP Plc raised the amount it will pay this year for the Deepwater Horizon accident as thousands of lawsuits related to the biggest oil spill in U.S. history start to wind down. The 2010 explosion at a well in the Gulf of Mexico threatened BP’s existence after 11 people were killed and millions of barrels of oil spilled into the sea. While the latest liabilities will add to the more than $60 billion of penalties the company has already racked up, Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley will see an end in sight to the largest court battles.

“With the claims facility’s work very nearly done, we now have better visibility into the remaining liability,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary said in the statement. “The charge we are taking as a result is fully manageable within our existing financial framework, especially now that we have the company back into balance at $50 per barrel.

The British company faced more than 390,000 claims from businesses such as seafood producers and tourism providers following the oil spill. More than 99 percent of the cases have been reviewed, according to court documents. Some are being paid out when determined to be valid. Still, the “last few remaining claims are likely to be the most complex and sizable,” according to Brendan Warn, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets Ltd.

What Should You Do If You Were Injured or Harmed By the 2010 BP Oil Spill?

If you were injured or harmed as a result of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, you may be due compensation for your losses. Hiring a general practitioner to handle a claim related to the spill is a serious mistake, as only an attorney with extensive experience in getting oil spill claims for clients will represent your interests adequately.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi BP Oil Spill law firm, to represent you if you were injured or harmed as a result of the Spill.

 

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys that are focussed on denying your compensation for the harm you experienced.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

/by

Mississippi Whistleblower Lawyer Advises: How Does 2018 Trump Budget Affect Whistleblowers?

After a tremendous amount of political brinksmanship, President Trump signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 into law on February 9, 2018. As an expert in whistleblower law, people have asked me whether the budget had the positive effect on whistleblowers that many hoped for. In one word—ye

The 2018 Budget makes new amendments to the tax code that greatly increase the reward that many whistleblowers can attain for providing evidence of illegal activity to the government.

Taxation of Attorneys’ Fees

Whether you are a whistleblower or any other kind of plaintiff—personal injury, worker’s compensation, medical malpractice—historically, the money you paid to your attorney either out of pocket as the case progressed or as a percentage of any award was considered taxable income. Because some cases are extremely complex and required extensive attorneys fees, the tax consequences of having those fees considered income resulted in awards being eaten up by taxes.

While compensation awarded to relators under the False Claims Act could be deducted from annual gross income (similar to other claims such ones based on discrimination) other whistleblower laws did not have the same sort of allowable deduction. An interest in promoting whistleblower suits that benefited the public interest drove this deduction’s existence in the False Claims Act but was never applied to similar laws such as the IRS, Medicaid, and SEC whistleblower laws.

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow participants in other whistleblower programs to deduct attorneys’ fees so long as the amount of the fees is not greater than the amount of the compensation recovered in the whistleblower suit. Congress made these non-SEC whistleblowers equal to those participating in the SEC whistleblower program, which is an overall movement towards fairness.  Perhaps more importantly, Congress further incentivized citizens’ interests in going forward with fraud claims, which is good for all citizens.

Expanded IRS Whistleblower Program

In addition to leveling the tax deduction landscape for whistleblowers, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 also made an important change for participants in the IRS whistleblower program.  Historically, IRS whistleblowers were allowed to recover an award if they provided new information that led to an IRS enforcement action which recovered at least $2 million in “penalties, interest, additions to tax, and additional amounts.” However, sometimes the IRS recovered a tremendous amount of money through an enforcement action that did not fall into one of those categories. The 2018 Budget widens that narrow scope of situations under which a whistleblower can recover. Now whistleblowers can recover anytime the IRS collects “proceeds” of a fraud prosecution as a result of a whistleblower’s information. This is a significant change, as in the past whistleblowers failed to receive their due compensation because the IRS recovered funds through a manner not included in the prior definition.

What Should You Do if You are Considering a Whistleblower Claim

Are you considering filing an IRS whistleblower case? As you have read, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 has made the landscape more generous and more level for whistleblowers, regardless if you are participating in the IRS, SEC, or any other program. But to attain your compensation, you will require the help of an experienced whistleblower attorney to decide whether the conduct you have observed constitutes fraud. Evidence gathering, dealing with the federal government’s attorneys, important deadlines, and filing requirements make your representation both complex and time-sensitive.

Call Barrett Law now at (601) 790-1505 if you think you may be a whistleblower.

Having expert legal advice by your side can mean the difference between receiving your share of a whistleblower judgment and losing your career and livelihood. Call us today.

 

 

/by

Experienced Mississippi Worker’s Compensation Attorney Answers Questions about Hand Injuries at Work

Mississippi is a state with a tremendous number of hard-working citizens who engage in a wide variety of occupations. Office work, farming, factory work, manufacturing, fishing, and numerous other jobs all have the same thing in common—they require extensive use of the employee’s hands. It is no wonder then the so many injured Mississippi workers come to me wondering how to be compensated when they suffer a hand injury while at work. One thing is critical to know, having experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation is critical if you are harmed in the workplace. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

What Should You Do if You Experience a Hand Injury at Work?

A hand injury is unique in that even a small injury can be career-ending.  While a broken bone in the foot may require an adjustment to the employee’s working conditions, any broken bone in the hand may take the employee out of commission. Hand injuries commonly require time off from work and medical attention. Receiving compensation for that loss of work in Mississippi requires the help of an experienced compensation attorney.

What Are the Most Common Causes of Work-Related Hand Injuries?

Interestingly, almost any type of work can result in a hand injury. As I sit here typing, my wrists are getting sore. A fishing boat worker may have their hands crushed or cut by machinery. A factory worker may be injured due to repetitive movements.  Whether it is poor ergonomics, a cut, or a crushing blow from machinery, hand injuries take many forms.  Below is a list of what I most commonly see:

  1. A puncture or cut requiring stitches, which takes an employee out of work while the injury heals;\
  2. Nerve or tendon damage that may require extensive and expensive occupational or physical therapy to treat;
  3. Chemical spills causing permanent nerve damage or burns that require extensive medical treatment;
  4. Repetitive motion injuries that cause conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome that may permanently prevent a worker from returning to the workplace; and
  5. Broken bones that routinely take months to heal and that may have long-term, lingering effects.

What Can You Do to Avoid Hand Injuries?

It is the employer’s duty to create a safe working environment that will not result in injuries to employees. In Mississippi, that means that you have a right to work in a safe workplace.  That said, there are steps that you can take to help prevent these injuries, such as wearing the protective gear provided to you, especially gloves.  If no protective gear is provided, you should demand it in writing such as an email. Do not wear rings in a workplace where heavy machinery or other crushing injuries may occur. If you are an office worker who types all day, make sure that your employer is paying attention to ergonomics and that you have a desk and keyboard that allows you to perform your job without causing nerve damage to your hands or wrists.

What Should You Do If You Suffered a Hand Injury in the Workplace?

If you were injured or harmed as a result of your work, you may be due compensation for your loss of employment, injuries, and pain and suffering. Hiring a general practitioner to handle a claim related to worker’s compensation is a serious mistake, as only an attorney with extensive experience in getting injured workers compensated for their injuries will get you what you deserve.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi worker’s compensation law firm, to represent you if you were injured or harmed at work.

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and insurance companies that are focused on denying your compensation for the harm you experienced.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

/by