Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney “Boomerang Hospitalization”

Most of us are horrified by the thought of elder abuse. But as the Baby Boomer generation grows older and more and more of them enter nursing home and in-home care, instances of elder abuse are on the rise. Many family members are on the alert for any sign of physical assault, financial abuse, or neglect. One type of abuse that is less understood is “boomerang hospitalization,” the frequent admittance, rapid discharge, and frequent re-admittance of nursing home residents into hospitals. There are several effects of boomerang hospitalization that I will discuss further below, but the overall effect may be your loved one’s dwindling health and needless exposure to infection and sickness.

If you fear that an elderly loved one is being abused or taken advantage of, you must contact an attorney experienced in representing families in elder abuse situations immediately.  Your loved one’s health  and well-being are at stake. Barrett Law has the experience to help you during this difficult time.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

What Is a Boomerang Hospitalization?

Given the age of most nursing home residents, it is not surprising that they often require acute medical care that only a hospital can provide. That is not a problem. However, studies have shown that one in five Medicare patients who are discharged from a hospital to a nursing home are readmitted to the hospital within the month. This “boomerang” return to the hospital occurs at a 27 percent higher rate than for non-nursing home residents. The question is why nursing home residents return to hospitalization at such a higher frequency.

There are several troubling takeaways from the boomerang hospitalization phenomenon. First, it suggests that nursing home residents may be released too soon from the hospital, perhaps because they are being released into a quasi-medical setting. Keep in mind that that the 27 percent boomerang rate is across nursing home Medicare patients and non-nursing home Medicare patients, so the comparison is of similarly aged people. If nursing home patients are released sooner, the notion that a nursing home is “safer” may be problematic. Nursing home residents are released back into a community of similarly-aged residents who may, as a whole, have a compromised ability to fight infection, illness, and other conditions common to hospitals. Accordingly, the real effect of boomerang hospitalization may be that the nursing home patient is released too soon, which both diminishes his or her ability to recover and may result in other residents’ health being compromised.

Over the past five years, Medicare has been scrutinizing hospitals with readmission rates that are unacceptably high. Congress is now going to take on the nursing home side of the equation by working on legislation what would levy fines and grant bonuses for nursing homes depending on their rates of hospital readmission.  These efforts’ goal is to keep patients in the hospital if they are sick and to lower readmission rates. I watch for boomerang hospitalization when looking at wrongful death, abuse, and fraud cases, as it can be symptomatic of other problems.

What Should You Do If You Believe Your Loved One is Being Abused?

If you have a loved one in a nursing home who is being sent to the hospital more often than necessary, contact experienced personal injury counsel immediately. Your elderly relative may be being released too soon from the hospital, endangering his or her health, or may be subjected to some form of financial abuse. Either way, my experience taking on elder abuse and neglect will serve you well as you try to provide excellent care for your loved one.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if your loved one has experienced elder abuse. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Discusses Recent Supreme Court Case Affecting Nursing Home Lawsuits

With baby boomers starting to move into nursing homes, there is an increasing demand for spots, especially in high-quality placements. As demand increases, nursing homes have leverage and can be more selective about who they admit. Along with that selectivity comes contract terms that are unfavorable to residents, including conditions that bar lawsuits against the nursing homes. Instead of being able to go to court like any other injured citizen, nursing homes sometimes insert contract provisions requiring binding arbitration instead. While arbitration is ostensibly a neutral setting for grievances to be heard, it lacks many of the quintessential qualities of a court, such as a jury, strict rules of evidence, and an ability to appeal decisions. Arbitrators rarely grant the significant settlements that come out of jury trials, making them the favored venue of industries such as nursing homes.

I want to discuss the effect that a recent U.S. Supreme Court case will have on nursing home abuse cases, and how it may affect the contracts that families sign when they agree to house their elderly loved one at a nursing home.  I attached the entire case below for you to read but will provide an overview and discussion of the case’s ramifications below.

If you fear that an elderly loved one is being abused or taken advantage of, you must contact an attorney experienced in representing families in elder abuse situations immediately.  Your loved one’s health, finances, and well-being are at stake. Barrett Law has the experience to help you during this difficult time.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

Kindred Nursing Centers v. Clark

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kindred Nursing Center v. Clark changed the playing field for those entering contracts upon moving into a nursing home. The facts are relatively straightforward. The families of two residents of Kindred Nursing Center moved their relatives into the Kentucky facility. Upon moving in, the families signed arbitration agreements that mandated that they resolve disputes in front of an arbitrator instead of taking any claim to court. The elderly residents did not sign arbitration agreements, however.  Soon after, the elderly residents both died, and the families felt that their deaths were due to Kindred’s neglect or abuse.

Usually, if a family believed that their relative’s death was the result of neglect or abuse, they would file a case in state court alleging a tort such as negligence or wrongful death. But because these families had signed an arbitration agreement, Kindred argued that they should be barred from filing a case in Kentucky state court and should instead have the case heard by an arbitrator. The families filed wrongful death in state court, arguing that because the elderly residents did not sign an arbitration agreement, the parties were not bound to arbitration.

The case eventually made its way to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which held that a family member could not bind an individual with an arbitration agreement unless the person has expressly authorized entering the contract. The Kentucky Supreme Court held that a person must expressly waive his right to a jury trial under the Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, determined that federal arbitration law trumped state law and that states cannot create special rules that apply only to arbitration agreements. This is a significant change, as states had enacted laws that protected their citizens’ rights to have a jury trial.  I expect that over time, nursing homes will make it a practice to have families sign away residents’ rights to a trial in favor of more industry-friendly arbitrators.

What Should You Do If You Believe Your Loved One is Being Abused?

If you believe a loved one has been neglected or abused in a nursing home setting, contact experienced personal injury counsel immediately. Collecting evidence of the abuse, dealing with opposing counsel, and attaining expert opinions are essential tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you while you concentrate on making sure your parent or relative is safe and healthy.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if your loved one has experienced abuse. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Claims Based on Dangerous Roadways

We enjoy some of the best maintained and designed roads here in Mississippi, unfortunately, we also have some of the worst.  Devastating accidents, injuries, and death can occur when contractors, or the state or local government builds or maintains a road negligently. I frequently receive calls from people who have been injured by dangerous roadways, especially roads that are being repaired or repaved. I wrote the following blog post to help those who have questions about the most common types of roadway dangers that I see.

 

If you have been injured, you must find experienced counsel to help you attain your fair share of compensation for your loss of income and injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you have been injured.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

Improper Striping

The stripes on the road that we all follow are usually pretty clear. That said, I frequently see clients who were injured when new striping was put on a newly paved part of a road while the old striping was on another section of the roadway. The new striping can confuse and divert cars into oncoming traffic’s lanes. In other instances, new striping directed cars off the roadway or into construction vehicles. If a construction company negligently allowed striping to confuse and injure drivers, it may provide a basis for a successful negligence claim.

Unmarked Turns or Dangers

Like striping, signs are supposed to direct traffic safely and help drivers avoid dangers on or alongside the roadway. When roads are newly build or repaved, however, signs or sign positions may not be updated to reflect current road conditions. I have seen cases here in Mississippi where a road sign was posted over 100 yards after the hazard it was supposedly warning drivers about. If a sign is that poorly posted and results in an accident, injury, or death, the victim likely has a strong negligence claim against the business or agency responsible for its faulty posting.

Low Road Shoulders or Drop Offs

We have all driven down a road and accidentally drifted onto the road’s shoulder.  This is usually an inconsequential event, and we correct our steering so that the car returns to the road’s center. But when a road is improperly designed and marked, the shoulder may be too steep and sudden, prohibiting the driver from returning to the roadway or causing him or her to lose control of their vehicle. Some roads have steep or no shoulders but should have signs warning drivers about this hazard. This may be a road design or road marking failure and may lead to a successful negligence claim if the car’s passengers are injured as a result.

Superelevation

We have all seen extreme examples of superelevation on raceways or when we built electric car tracks as children—a raised outer road edge keeps cars on the road as they go around turns fast. The same concept applies on highways, and superelevation means that the outside edge of a road’s curve should be higher to help keep cars on the road that are traveling at higher speeds. Older roads may not have superelevation, and paving projects may inadvertently reduce the degree of superelevation necessary on a roadway, making it more dangerous.  A negligence claim may succeed if a driver is injured because a curve that required superelevation lacked it.

What Should You Do If A Dangerous Roadway has injured you or a Loved One?

If a dangerous roadway injured you or a loved one, you might have a viable claim for compensation for your injuries, loss of work, and other harm. Let experienced personal injury counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions regarding the roadway’s safety, and dealing with opposing attorneys. These are essential tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you while you concentrate on healing.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury due to a dangerous roadway. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains Injuries Caused by Cars

Car crashes cause some of the worst injuries I see as a personal injury attorney and sadly often result in death. We buy cars so that we will be protected in a crash, so it is disheartening to see that cars themselves are often the cause of injuries.  I sometimes meet clients who failed to attain legal advice regarding a life-altering injury. These folks lost so much due to their car-related injury, yet simple mistakes kept them from being compensated. A simple mistake can mean the loss of your home and financial ruin for your family. I wrote the following blog post to help individuals and families avoid costly mistakes when their car causes significant injury or death.

If you have been injured, you must find experienced counsel to help you attain your fair share of compensation for your loss of income and injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you have been injured.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

Overview of Three Types of Automobile Related Claims—Crashworthiness, Design, and Manufacturing Flaws

Not everyone who gets in a car accident has a valid claim against an automobile manufacturer. To establish liability, an injured party must show some negligence on the part of the manufacturer. Negligence generally means that a person knew or should have known of a risk and failed to take steps to avoid that risk. In the automotive context, that means that the manufacturer was negligent regarding the car’s crashworthiness, design, or manufacturing. Clients here Mississippi often have questions regarding the difference between these three theories of negligence, so I have described each one in some detail below.

Crashworthiness

You have likely seen commercials where car companies show off their crash-dummy filled cars surviving horrific impacts. While those images were made to get you to buy that car, that sort of crash testing is critical to establishing the car’s actual safety rating.  Many advances in car design—seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones—have increased passengers’ chances of surviving even an extreme impact. Claims against car manufacturers alleging failures to ensure crashworthiness usually focus on one of the car’s safety features failing to work during a crash.  At its core, a crashworthiness claim argues that a person in an accident should have survived given the manufacturer’s claims regarding the car’s safety systems.

Design Failures

Recent history is full of examples of poorly designed cars.  Those design problems frequently resulted in tragic results. Whether it was cars that tipped over at certain speeds or had airbags that propelled deadly shards of plastic at passengers, design flaws have proven to be fatal. If you were injured by your car, it may be because of a problem with its design. You can recover compensation for your injuries if it can be shown that the manufacturer was negligent in selling the vehicle with this design flaw.

Manufacturing Failures

Sometimes vehicles are designed by the manufacturer to be safe, but the car is actually built incorrectly. This is a manufacturing flaw, which means that an otherwise well-designed car was made unsafe due to a mistake in the manufacturing process that rendered the car unreasonably dangerous. For example, if a cheaper, weaker metal is used instead of the specified type, part failure and serious injuries may ensue.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured?

If you or a loved one was injured by a car, you might have a viable claim against the automobile manufacturer for compensation for your injuries, loss of work, and other harm. As I explained above, claims can be made based on crashworthiness, design defects, manufacturing defects, and other negligence claims. Let experienced counsel take care of attaining statements and analysis from expert witnesses and dealing with the automobile company’s legal team. These are essential tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you while you concentrate on healing.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury in a car crash. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Discusses Product Liability Cases

Unfortunately, I routinely represent clients here in Mississippi who were injured by a product they purchased. Often, the product itself was benign and was used appropriately but had some design flaw that resulted in it becoming dangerous. These cases are always sad, as my client has usually been injured, has lost work, and may take years to recover. In the worst cases, I represent the family of a person who was killed by a defective product. Attorneys for the other side, the product manufacturer or store that sold the product, are always aggressive in their defense, as they know that the damages my clients are due are massive.

If you have been injured, you must find experienced counsel to help you attain your fair share of compensation for your loss of income and injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you if you were injured by a product you purchased.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

The Two Parts to a Products Liability Claim

There are two parts to proving a products liability case. The first part is that you were injured and the product caused your injury.  The second part is that the product was unreasonably dangerous, and there are several ways to prove “dangerousness” in this context.

Part One—You Were Injured, and the Product Caused Your Injury

This may seem pretty straightforward and often is.  First, you have to prove that you were injured. If you are pursuing a personal injury claim, you have some injury. That said, people are injured all of the time. So you must also be able to show that the product in question caused that injury. For example, if you have a broken leg, you have an injury. But if you are arguing that a faulty ladder rung caused that injury, you will need to either show a broken rung, have a witness that saw the rung break, or some combination of the two. Without that sort of evidence, the ladder company’s attorneys may successfully argue that you broke your leg some other way and are simply blaming their ladder to get a windfall.

Part Two—The Product Was Unreasonably Dangerous

To meet the second requirement of a products liability claim, you must show that the product was unreasonably dangerous. “Unreasonably” is a somewhat subjective standard. A chainsaw provides a good example to explore this standard and the others that follow. As most people who work with them know, chainsaws are inherently dangerous even if used safely. So just being injured by a chainsaw is not enough to recover in a personal injury case against a chainsaw manufacturer or store.  To prove that the chainsaw was “unreasonably” dangerous, you first have to show that you were using it appropriately. Using the product appropriately generally means using it within the manufacturer’s specifications. In this example, you would have to show that you were using the chainsaw to saw wood of the appropriate size for the saw under appropriate conditions.  If you were using a trimming saw to take down a massive weeping willow, you were not using the chainsaw appropriately.  On the other hand, if you were using the trimming saw to cut a branch off that weeping willow, you have a good argument that you were using the saw appropriately.

Simply being injured by a product that you were using appropriately is insufficient to win your case—the product must also have some defect.  If we can prove that you were using the chainsaw appropriately and were injured as a result of that use, we will then have to show that a design defect, manufacturing defect, or a failure to warn caused your injury.

Design Defect—a design defect is what the name implies; the product had a design flaw that resulted in an unreasonable risk of injury when the product was used appropriately.  Imagine a chainsaw that had a guard in between the handle and spinning blade that was designed poorly and allows the user’s hand to slide over the guard when some routine event occurred, such as the chainsaw blade catching on tree knot.  That would be a design defect that creates an unforeseen hazardous condition when the product is used as intended.

Manufacturing Defect—a manufacturing defect is a flaw in the creation or building of a properly designed product.  Imagine the same chainsaw but with a properly designed guard.  However, in this example, imagine that the manufacturer used a cheaper, lightweight plastic for the guard that resulted in the user’s hand breaking the guard if the chainsaw caught on a knot in a tree.  That flaw was not the designer’s fault but was caused by the poor way the product ‘s manufacturing.

Failure to Warn—finally, a failure to warn is a flaw in a properly designed product that was manufactured correctly but lacks sufficient instructions to warn a person of a reasonably foreseeable hazard. Again, imagine the chainsaw from the above examples. If the saw was designed and manufactured correctly, but the manual failed to indicate that the blade would likely jump back if it was used to cut wet wood, that would be a failure to warn.  Failure to warn cases usually involve products that are normally safe, but the manufacturer fails to warn the consumer of a situation where the product is unreasonably dangerous.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured by a Product?

If you or a loved one was injured by a product, you might have a viable claim for compensation for your injuries, loss of work, and other harm. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with your opposing attorneys. These are essential tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you while you concentrate on healing.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury due to a product. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

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Experienced Mississippi Whistleblower Lawyer Discusses the Perils of Whistleblowing

People often hear of substantial whistleblower settlements and start to dream of what they would do with all of that money. But for every millionaire whistleblower, there are hundreds of people who did not get rich, were retaliated against, and suffered in silence. In the highly technical area of whistleblower law, getting experienced legal advice often means the difference between success and suffering.

A recent case result highlights the sort of challenges many of my Mississippi clients have to endure when they expose government fraud. The whistleblowers were TSA agents who exposed unsafe and sloppy practices. They received a million dollars, or $333,000 each, which will likely catch potential whistleblowers’ attention. But they also endured severe retribution and retaliation at the hands of their supervisors, which should be a warning regarding the challenges of whistleblowing. I provided a link to the press release regarding this case below and will discuss it in some detail.

If you are considering exposing government fraud, contact an experienced whistleblower attorney first. In the end, the federal government will only prosecute very few whistleblowers’ claims each year. Only those that are pursued by the government result in any compensation for the whistleblower, so stating your claim convincingly is critical. I have the experience to help you through the process.  Call me today at (601) 790-1505.

The Whistleblower Protection Act

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, 5 U.S.C. ch. 12 sec. 1201, is a federal law that prohibits retaliation, or threats of retaliation, against federal employee whistleblowers who report misconduct within the federal agency that employs them. Federal employee whistleblowers may file complaints if they reasonably believe that they know of “a violation of law, gross mismanagement, gross waste of funds, abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.” Alleged violations of the Whistleblower Protection Act are prosecuted by attorneys from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

T.S.A. Whistleblowers Expose Operations Failures and Safety Issues

In the case resolution announced on May 23, 2018, the Office of Special Prosecutions stated that three Transportation Security Administration (T.S.A.) whistleblowers would receive a total of one million dollars because they had reported problems regarding lax adherence to safety protocols and poor management. The whistleblowers, three T.S.A. administrators, were all working in Hawaii at the time they raised their concerns, and two of them were originally from Hawaii.  Instead of acting on the reports, T.S.A. senior leadership retaliated against the administrators by permanently relocating their positions to the mainland United States.

The attorney prosecuting the federal government’s case, Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner stated, “I am pleased that we were able to achieve favorable results for the three TSA employees who had their lives thrown into disarray and hope this outcome will encourage others to speak up when they see something that could put the public at risk.” I think Kerner sums of the plight of the whistleblower well, there is a chance that you will be well compensated for your decision to bring government abuses to light, but it would be inappropriate to discuss that compensation without the “disarray” that choice will cause.

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

Do you know about fraud or other serious misconduct, fraud, waste, or abuse of authority occurring in your federal workplace like the one described above? Are you considering filing a whistleblower case?

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

Experienced whistleblower lawyer Barrett can provide you with the advice you will need to file a successful Whistleblower Protection Act case. 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.

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Experienced Mississippi Whistleblower Lawyer Discusses Troublesome Proposed Changes to the SEC’s Whistleblower Program

The past several years demonstrated that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) whistleblower program is a powerful tool in the government’s effort to curb Wall Street corruption. The key to its effectiveness has been its massive incentive provision—whistleblowers can reap 10% to 30% of the funds that the government recovers, numbers sometimes reaching tens of millions of dollars. Keeping all of this in mind, I am troubled by the SEC’s vote in June to propose changes to its whistleblower program that could significantly reduce whistleblower incentives in significant cases. While the new rules are only proposed for now, not final, they appear to be a troubling attempt to disincentivize Wall Street whistleblowing, an act that will turn the financial markets back into the Wild West, with effects here in Mississippi. I have linked to the notice of the proposed rules below.

If you are considering exposing financial or any other type of fraud, contact an experienced whistleblower attorney first. The SEC and Department of Justice prosecute very few whistleblowers’ fraud claims, and only those that are prosecuted result in any compensation for the whistleblower, so positioning your claim effectively is critical. I have the experience to help you through the process.  Call me today at (601) 790-1505.

The SEC’s Current Rules

Since the SEC made its first payout in 2012, the agency has paid out $160 million to 46 whistleblowers.  This past March 2018, the SEC awarded three whistleblowers $83 million as an award for their tips regarding fraud at Bank of America. Currently, these large awards to whistleblowers are merely a function of math, meaning that if you tip the SEC off to $100 million in fraud, you recover 10% to 30% or $10 to $30 million.

The SEC’s Proposed Rules

Under the SEC’s proposed rules, massive awards—rewards for tremendous personal risk—would be discretionary. While the proposed rules allow for payouts for whistleblowers in cases that are currently too small to qualify for the SEC’s program, this shift is troubling. Remember, whistleblowers often risk their career, friendships, and reputation to expose fraud. While it is a nice gesture to open up the SEC whistleblower program to low dollar value fraud, it often just is not worth the risk to expose minor fraud. On the other hand, the SEC’s very purpose is to police large-scale fraud that affects citizens across the country, so by weakening its award program for the largest-scale fraud, it disincentivizes reporting the most critical financial fraud.

In short, the SEC’s proposed rules incentivizes whistleblowing in low-end cases where the risk is rarely worth it and disincentivizes whistleblowing in cases of massive fraud that affect the most people. This seems backward and should not be adopted as a final rule.

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

Do you know about fraud occurring in a publicly traded company? Are you considering filing a whistleblower case? The proposed rules discussed above are not currently in effect, and huge bounties are available with insider information regarding fraud in the finance industry. To protect your career, reputation, and family and to attain your fair share of compensation, you will require the help of an experienced whistleblower attorney.

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

Experienced whistleblower lawyer Barrett can provide you with the advice you will need to file a successful SEC whistleblower program case. 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.

 

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Experienced Mississippi Worker’s Compensation Attorney Explains: Secondary Injuries Stemming from Original Work Injuries

I take a lot of questions from Injured workers here in Mississippi about secondary injuries that were not caused by their employment but are the result of an employment-related injury. For example, I have helped quite a few clients who suffered foot injuries at work as a result of warehouse workers who have gone on to develop subsequent knee and back injuries that arose as a consequence of the original foot injury. The question these clients always ask is whether they can collect worker’s compensation for both injuries or just for the original one? The answer is that in the above example, the injured warehouse worker was due compensation for the second injury as well as the first, but only because he fought for those benefits with an attorney by his side.

If you were injured at work and have developed a secondary injury, you may be due compensation for your medical care, time without work, and other costs.  You will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your both your primary and secondary injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you have been injured.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 Types of Secondary Injuries

Worker’s compensation will likely cover secondary injuries that are directly caused by a work-related injury. I usually see a few different types of secondary injuries and will describe each below.

The first type of secondary injury that I see are injuries caused by treatment. People often have serious allergic reactions to the medications they are prescribed for their work-related injury; the side effects of those reactions are the secondary injury that would likely be covered by worker’s compensation. Similarly, if you injure your back at work and attend prescribed physical therapy and are subsequently injured in a physical therapy session, the injuries related to that secondary injury will likely be covered by worker’s compensation. The same is true if you are on crutches due to a work-related injury, fall, and break a different bone as a result of the fall.

The second type of secondary injury is an injury that arises from the workplace injury, but that is not necessarily causally related to it. I mentioned the warehouse worker’s foot injury above. His employer and his employer’s insurance company here in Mississippi tried to argue that worker’s compensation should not cover the knee injury that developed as a result of his foot being injured. In a situation like this, an injured worker needs a skilled attorney who can present effective medical evidence that the secondary injury arose from the primary one. Plenty of people have knee issues that develop unrelated to work injuries, so it takes some skill to show that the secondary injury truly was causally related to the first injury.

Worker’s compensation will not cover a truly unrelated secondary injury.  However, if that secondary injury exacerbates, or makes worse, your work-related injury, then you can seek worker’s compensation for the worsening of your original injury.

What Should You Do If You Are Injured at Work

If you were injured at work, there are concrete, immediate steps that you should take to protect yourself and your family.  The first step is contacting an experienced worker’s compensation attorney to guide you through this legally-intensive process. If you have a secondary injury arising from your original workplace injury, you may be due compensation for those costs as well. You are likely to receive resistance for these secondary payments but deserve compensation for these injuries as well. I have helped many clients through the initial and secondary injury compensation process and can help you too.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi worker’s compensation law firm, to represent you if you have a serious injury that prevents you from working or a secondary injury that has developed as a result of your initial injury. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi BP Oil Spill Attorney Discusses Types of Spill-Related Medical Symptoms and Claims

Eight years after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill devastated the Gulf region, over 35,000 people have made medical claims related to the spill. These claims range from the minor and short-term to devastating and life-long. Regardless of the type or severity of your spill-related medical condition, you deserve full compensation if you were affected by the spill.

Were you affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Did you participate in the cleanup effort or come into contact with dispersants? Those activities may entitle you to a portion of settlement funds. If you think you are entitled to some of the BP Deepwater Horizon settlement, having experienced counsel help you attain your fair share is critical. Barrett Law has expertise in Gulf oil spill litigation and has the experience to help you through this process.  We offer straightforward advice to help you through the recovery process, contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

Medical Conditions Related the BP Gulf Oil Spill

It is somewhat shocking to me that 35,000 medical claims have been filed to be repaid under the BP Oil Spill compensation plan. That is a tremendous number of claims but is likely only a small percentage of those who experienced some medical effect from the spill, given that over 150,000 people worked on the spill response and cleanup.

People often ask me about the sort of medical conditions and symptoms my clients experience. People also come in wondering whether the mysterious symptoms they are enduring could be related to their 2010 contact with either Gulf oil or dispersants. I wrote the following blog post to help answer some of these questions.

Commonly Seen Medical Conditions Related to the 2010 BP Gulf Oil Spill

It is unknown whether the chemical dispersants or the oil itself was more toxic to those exposed the 2010 BP Gulf Oil Spill, but both have proven incredibly harmful to those who contacted them. Exacerbating that danger is the fact that response workers were frequently told not to utilize health-protecting safety equipment such as respirators. Because the degree and duration of contact varied greatly, the type and severity of the medical condition vary widely as well.

A list of common symptoms I see includes fainting, heart “fluttering” or palpitations, vomiting, slow or reduced brain function, migraines, bloody noses, memory loss, blood in urine. These symptoms are often harbingers of serious physical or mental degradation, and if you are experiencing them, you should seek medical help and speak to an experienced BP Oil Spill compensation attorney immediately.

If you are found to have a spill-related condition, you may be due compensation. The amount of compensation will depend upon the degree and duration of your condition. Compensation for minor, short-lived illnesses that did not require hospitalization has been lump sum payments of $1,300.  Similar conditions that required hospitalization or are ongoing have received lump-sum payments up to roughly $12,000. Compensation for serious, chronic conditions that continue to affect people exposed to oil or dispersants have been in the $50,000 to $60,000 range. Obviously, the compensation fund is not simply handing out checks, and these sorts of financial recoveries only come with the help of experienced counsel.

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

If you were harmed as a result of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill or its cleanup, you might 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 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill claims paid will represent your interests adequately.

Call the experienced Mississippi BP Oil Spill Lawyer to represent you if you were harmed as a result of the spill.

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

 

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Experienced Mississippi Whistleblower Lawyer Discusses Massive Settlement

As everyone knows, there is a tremendous amount of money to be made in the medical industry. Wherever there is money, there is greed. And wherever there is greed, there is fraud.  The False Claims Act prohibits fraud against federal health care programs like Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare. Those who become aware of fraud, including fraud related to medical programs, can attain significant rewards for sharing their information with the federal government, and awards can reach well into the tens of millions of dollars.

Are you considering filing a whistleblower case? To protect your career and family and to attain your compensation, you will require the help of an experienced whistleblower attorney. Call Barrett Law now at (601) 790-1505 if you think you may be a whistleblower.

The Federal False Claims Act

The Federal False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-3733), is a law that penalizes individuals and companies that are convicted of defrauding the government. The False Claims Act was created during the Civil War and signed by President Lincoln to root out companies that were taking financial advantage of the war effort. Present day False Claims Act prosecutions are motivated by the same spirit and intent to ferret out fraud against the government.

Health Care Fraud and Kick-Backs at the Center of this False Claims Act Case

The federal government is the largest provider of healthcare in the United States through federal health care programs like Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare. As a result, whenever large-scale fraud is discovered within the healthcare industry, it likely triggers the False Claims Act, as the fraud will implicate some federal medical program. One aspect of the False Claims Act is a prohibition on kickbacks, which is a financial inducement for a medical provider to prescribe certain medications, refer patients to certain providers, or refer patients for unnecessary procedures. Kickbacks are fraud because they encourage doctors to make decisions based on financial gain and not patients’ best interests.

Medical providers offer physicians a wide array of kickbacks, such as sporting events or concert tickets, phony research grants, free samples that the doctor can in turn sell, payment for participation in phony drug trials, golf outings, free lunches to medical office staffs, and paying for physicians and their families to attend conferences.

The fraud in kickbacks comes into play because doctors are incentivized to send patients for more expensive or unnecessary treatment when a cheaper or more effective alternative was available.  This expense is eventually passed on to taxpayers. Accordingly, the federal government and the Department of Justice, who prosecutes these cases, has a strong interest in rooting out kickback schemes. To make this enterprise more efficient, the federal government provides whistleblowers who alert the government to medical care fraud 10% to 30% of all money recovered as part of the prosecution. This recovery can be modest but can also be in the tens of millions of dollars.

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

Do you know about fraud or other serious financial misconduct occurring in a healthcare context? Are you considering filing a whistleblower case? To protect your career and family and to attain your fair share of compensation, you will require the help of an experienced whistleblower attorney.

Call Barrett Law now at (601) 790-1505 if you are considering becoming a whistleblower.

Experienced Mississippi Whistleblower Lawyer Barrett can provide you with the advice you will need to file a successful False Claims Act case. 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.

 

 

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