Today's post comes from guest author Thomas Domer, from The Domer Law Firm.Legislatures around the country (including ours in Wisconsin) seem to be preoccupied with employee fraud in workers'’ compensation, despite overwhelming evidence that employee fraud is virtually nonexistent. Employer fraud, however, continues to plague the industry. Over the last decade, my friend and colleague [...]
Number Value Non-Employee Fraud Cases 9 $ 848,000,000 Employee Fraud Cases 1 $ 1,500,000 Total $ 849,500,000 The top six of our top ten fraud cases of 2015 are from California, a perennial offender. The other four cases are from New York, Washington, Utah, and Massachusetts. As we continue to discover each year, non-employee fraud cases [...]
In New York, after prevailing in trial court, unpaid interns for Fox Entertainment Group were able to receive class credit and minimum wage for their work on the set of the film “Black Swan.” Their win made the Second Circuit Court of Appeals adopt a test to be used in determining whether an unpaid intern [...]
The News & Observer recently published an article exposing the under-reporting of workplace deaths by the North Carolina State Department of Labor. The Department reported only 23 deaths for 2013 and for 2014, the Department reported 44 deaths. However, even 44 deaths is significantly less than the 243 workplace deaths reported by the Department in [...]
Number Value Non-Employee Fraud Cases 9 $ 74,876,000.00 Employee Fraud Cases 1 $ 450,000.00 Total $ 75,326,000.00 Five of the top ten fraud cases in 2014 are from California. The other five cases are from Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington and Georgia. As usual, non-employee fraud cases dominated the list and the dollar amounts are staggering, [...]
A yearlong McClatchy public-records investigation of government construction projects spanning 28 states discovered widespread misclassification of construction workers' as independent contractors instead of employees (News & Observer, September 8, 2014). By misclassifying their employees, construction companies were able to undercut their law-abiding competitors while at the same time exploiting those desperate for work. As a [...]
Today's post comes from guest author Jon Rehm, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.I was happy to have the chance to represent Theron Chapman in his whistleblower claim against his former employer, Midwest Demolition. While the Lincoln Journal Star headline of “Man chased from job by manager with stun gun awarded back pay” is catchy, the [...]
Today's post comes from guest author Jon Gelman, from Jon L Gelman LLC.While reviewing some historical cases today, I realized that what is missing from the workplace is the concept of "a job." America's economy has dramatically changed, and so have jobs that were once available its workforce. Even clearer is the fact that the [...]
Over the past few years, many states have aggressively gone after workers' compensation fraud (whether it's the employee or the employer) and the amount of employer fraud being discovered continues to be staggering, notwithstanding these efforts. Legitimate business owners that pay for workers' compensation, as required by law, are at a competitive disadvantage with those [...]