Naples, Florida February 28, 2007
Global Workers was invited to speak on portable justice issues to the American Bar Association Worker’s Compensation Committee Meeting in Naples, Florida. Facing a room full of workers compensation claimants attorneys, insurance defense lawyers, and judges, it was a unique opportunity to encourage them to embrace, not reject transnational claims.
The task was two-fold: to convince the insurance companies to stop rejecting these cases out of hand (often times for no legal reason), and to urge claimants attorneys not to pass on these procedurally complex (and often low or no paying) cases. As mentioned in this blog, transnational cases are not easy. Procedural obstacles include participation of the injured worker in hearings (returning to the US is usually not an option) and working with foreign doctors. Some states outright ban various workers’ compensation benefits to workers, such as Alabama’s prohibition on death benefits to non-resident dependents. Cutting back benefits to employed persons injured on the job is not only legally questionable, but morally indefensible.
Not surprisingly, only one attorney in the room had experience with a client who had left the country. As noted in this blog, many injured workers return home before securing legal support and inevitably do not find help. Most never even know they are entitled to it. The presentation and discussion that followed made several understand the obstacles, usually too big to overcome, that these workers face. One attorney commented on the New York Times article in today’s paper, highlighting abuses of guest workers) and said he never knew that these issues could (and now he was convinced they would) affect him.
The meeting was encouraging. Hopefully now more transnational workers will receive the treatment that all workers are entitled to when injured on the job.