Worker Comp Generally

September 30, 2014

Attorneys Dina Brilliant and Glenn Neiman guest speakers on Berks County Television

Last night, attorneys Dina Brilliant and Glenn Neiman were guest speakers on the television show hosted by Injured Workers of PA on Berks County Television. Prior to addressing the specific topic of the show, “The Most Frequently Asked Questions We Hear,” the two spoke a little about the prospective legislation which would tax many legal services in PA, including contingent fee agreements in Pennsylvania workers’ compensation matters (Senate Bill 76).

After dealing with this “Legislative Alert,” the two addressed such questions as:

“Can I get workers’ compensation benefits in Pennsylvania if I am not legally able to work in this Country?”

September 23, 2014

Pennsylvania Wants to Tax Injured Workers, Others, For Legal Fees

by Glenn Neiman

If the State of Pennsylvania has its way, soon injured workers, and others who badly need legal services, will have to pay tax on top of those legal services. We find this to be a totally unnecessary kick in the pants to the entire labor market by a government who it would seem no longer cares about the average tax payer. Senate Bill 76, if enacted, would place a tax on those who can least afford it.

First an employee gets injured and has to deal with the pain, and disability, often following a work injury. Soon thereafter, especially if the entitlement to workers’ comp benefits is contested, the injured worker begins to suffer desperate financial harm. To have the best chance of succeeding, the injured worker often has to hire an attorney.

Once the injured worker waits what can be a year, or more, while a case winds its way through the PA workers’ compensation system, he or she may be successful in the litigation. Typically, an attorney in Pennsylvania receives a fee of 20% of the benefits due to the injured worker. If Senate Bill 76 is passed, the injured worker would have to then pay taxes, of 7% or more, on those legal services, further depleting the recovery.

March 6, 2014

Topics to Cover in Our Blog?

by Glenn Neiman

You may have noticed that we have not updated our blog as frequently in the past month or so as we had been. For better or worse, there have been no cases from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania or the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania dealing with PA workers’ compensation issues. Also, we have not come across any recent medical developments, which would be of interest to injured workers in Pennsylvania. Even the normally volatile PA Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has been rather quiet of late.

While we will continue to keep our eye on the Courts, on developments in medicine and on happenings within the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, we invite you to help us with this blog. Feel free to e-mail us at gneiman@bnlegal.com with any topics you think would be of interest to the readers of our blog. Perhaps there are questions that you have, or parts of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act that could be explained better. Chances are, if there is something you are wondering, other injured workers may wonder as well.

January 23, 2014

Attending Seminar on WCAIS to Better Handle Workers’ Comp Cases in PA

by Glenn Neiman

On Friday, January 24, 2014, our offices will be closed for part of the day so our attorneys, and our staff, can attend a seminar regarding the usage of the new computer system recently installed for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Called the WCAIS system, this program went live back in September.

Though we were involved in the early testing of the WCAIS system, each day has brought changes to the new program. To best handle our cases with the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, we felt it important that we, and our staff, attend a seminar held to review the current status of WCAIS, and how best to use the system. The seminar is scheduled to have Hon. Elizabeth A. Crum, Director, Workers’ Compensation Office of Adjudication in Harrisburg, Hon. Susan B. Caravaggio, Central District Judge Manager for the Workers’ Compensation Office of Adjudication, and three of the lead programmers who worked on, and refined, the system.

While we apologize for any inconvenience caused by us closing the firm, we believe our attendance at this seminar this will better enable us to represent injured workers throughout Southeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

December 18, 2013

Brilliant & Neiman LLC Again Selected as a Top Blog

by Brilliant & Neiman

When we were selected last year by LexisNexis as one of the Top 25 Blogs for Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Issues for 2012, it was our fourth such honor in the past five years. We wanted to make sure that we continued to keep our blog at this high level, to be worthy of the praise we were given. Over the course of 2013, we have strived to provide information to the general public, to help injured workers, especially those in Pennsylvania. We wanted to be a resource people could trust and rely upon.

To our delight, we have once again been selected by LexisNexis as one of the Top 25 Blogs for Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Issues for 2013. We are humbled to now be a five-time recipient of such a high honor from an esteemed source. While we certainly do not produce our blog for such awards, we do greatly appreciate being recognized for our efforts.

As we have over the past several years, we will work hard in 2014 to continue to keep the same level of service to the public, and make sure that we remain worthy of the honor we have received.

December 6, 2013

PA Senate Essentially Trying to Kill Guaranty Fund; Harm Injured Workers

by Glenn Neiman

One of the few recent laws passed in Pennsylvania which helped injured workers was the creation of the Uninsured Employers Guaranty Fund (UEGF). This fund was designed to be used in cases where the injured worker was employed by someone who (in direct violation of PA law) failed to carry workers’ compensation insurance coverage. The UEGF was designed to provide medical treatment, and lost wages, to those workers who, under the previous system, would be left with no recourse. This, of course, was a saving grace which embodied the supposed “humanitarian objectives” of Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Act.

Because the problem of uninsured employers in PA is so prevalent, funds allocated to the UEGF have exhausted at a faster pace than was budgeted. The legislature was then left to decide how best to fix the problem. In an astonishing declaration of indifference to injured workers throughout the State, the Pennsylvania Senate created Senate Bill 1195. Rather than simply replenish the UEGF, and allow injured workers to receive benefits they desperately need, the Senate has elected to simply gut the UEGF to reduce the number of successful claims. This is a truly sad decision being made by those who are supposed to represent us all.

Instead of coming down harder on uninsured employers, and simply reducing claims by reducing the true offenders, the Senate has decided the burden should fall on the injured workers, who are only the innocent victims. First, the worker gets injured, then they get victimized by their employer having no insurance (in violation of Pennsylvania law). It is a double punishment that simply is neither fair nor just.

September 17, 2013

WCAIS Now Live For PA Workers’ Compensation

by Glenn Neiman

As scheduled, the Workers’ Compensation Automation and Integration System (WCAIS) went live for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation on September 9, 2013. Having been in on the ground floor of this massive undertaking, we watched this transition with great interest. While we are excited with the possibilities this new system will offer, the change in systems did not start without some issues.

For several days after the launch, the system was shut down. Since the previous system had been stopped, in anticipation of WCAIS starting, this caused the workers’ comp system in PA to grind to a halt. Fortunately, WCAIS does appear to now be functioning (in fact, today we received our first Notices of Hearing using the system). Whether the system is fully functional is unknown to us.

Problems do remain to be addressed. One Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) told us that there is no functioning scanner in that workers’ compensation hearing office. This means that no evidence received by a WCJ in that office can be entered into the system. A WCJ in another hearing office advised parties to use bench orders when pursuing a Compromise & Release (settlement), as that WCJ was not sure when the system would allow WCJs to issue decisions through WCAIS.

September 6, 2013

Brilliant & Neiman LLC Awarded 2013 Pennsylvania Excellence Award

by Glenn Neiman

We at Brilliant & Neiman LLC are honored to announce that the Small Business Institute for Excellence in Commerce (SBIEC) has awarded our firm with the 2013 Pennsylvania Excellence Award. According to the press release:

“Each year the SBIEC conducts business surveys and industry research to identify companies that have achieved demonstrable success in their local business environment and industry category. They are recognized as having enhanced the commitment and contribution of small businesses through service to their customers and community. Small businesses of this caliber enhance the consumer driven stature that Pennsylvania is renowned for”.

We are obviously humbled and honored by being selected for this award, and we strive to serve our clients at the highest level every day, to make sure we are worthy of such recognition. It is this kind of recognition which reinforces our decision, from our firm’s creation, to limit our practice to simply representing injured workers in Pennsylvania workers’ compensation matters.

August 28, 2013

Workers’ Compensation Attorneys on Television

by Glenn Neiman

As we mentioned before, both of the partners of Brilliant & Neiman LLC, Dina Brilliant and Glenn Neiman, were invited to appear on a television show hosted by Injured Workers of Pennsylvania. This show was aired live on August 19, 2013, and broadcast throughout the Berks County region of PA. The website for Berks County Television has a copy of the show in its archives, and it can be viewed on the internet by clicking here.

We at Brilliant & Neiman LLC thank Injured Workers of Pennsylvania for giving us this opportunity to speak to the public on issues regarding workers’ compensation in Pennsylvania. The primary topic was the status of House Bill 1636, which would eliminate choice of doctor for all injured workers in Pennsylvania. One of the jobs we, as attorneys representing injured workers, have is to educate the public, so injured workers know their rights under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act.

August 12, 2013

PA Legislature Trying to Deny Choice of Medical Treatment to all Injured Workers

by Glenn Neiman

As we mentioned previously, the Pennsylvania Legislature is planning another attack on injured workers in PA in 2013. This notion has now taken the form of House Bill 1636, which seeks to forever deny injured workers in PA the right to select their own physician.

Under the current provisions of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, if an employer follows the correct procedures and posts a proper list of at least six health care providers (at least three of which must be physicians), then the employer is only responsible for payment of medical treatment with the listed panel providers for the first 90 days of the injury.

If this Bill becomes law, however, an employer may list as few as a single Coordinated Care Organization (CCO) on a panel. Then, the injured worker would have to treat with this single organization, not for the first 90 days, but for the entire duration of the injury. That’s right – the legislature seeks to deny injured workers in PA from ever getting to select their own physicians.