Workers' Compensation Matters

Our attorneys are keenly aware that client representation means not only providing the highest quality, results-oriented legal services, but doing so in a manner which is cost effective and consistent with the client’s circumstances and goals. We work with clients at the outset of each matter to make sure we understand the desired end result and that the client understands what will likely be involved in obtaining that result. This process continually repeats throughout the representation. In short, we recognize that sound business judgment is every bit as important as sound legal judgment.

We are actively involved with many clients in the public sector as well as industries such as retail, automotive, health care, manufacturing, trucking, technology, food and beverage distribution, industrial product distribution, professional services and banking, to name just a few. Summarized below are the types of matters our Labor & Employment Practice Group attorneys typically handle and descriptions of some of the actual cases in those areas.

Representative Workers’ Compensation Experience

The following examples show the breadth of the services provided to clients in relation to workers’ compensation issues:

• Representation of a foundry before OSHA and the Industrial Commission after one of the company’s employees died, allegedly from a workplace injury.
• Representation of an aerospace parts manufacturing client in a union arbitration, a workers’ compensation court appeal and a court case involving disability discrimination and workers’ compensation retaliation. Won a two-day arbitration hearing and settled retaliation and workers’ compensation cases.
• Negotiation of a favorable settlement for a plastic products manufacturer, which was defending against its employee’s application for an award for the violation of a specific safety requirement.
• Representation of a computer manufacturer in court and before the Industrial Commission and the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation in Columbus on matters dealing with the company’s unintentional failure to pay timely its workers’ compensation premiums.
• Representation of a large health care provider on managing its claims and administrative costs by advising on how to handle more of its own workers’ compensation administration.
• Proved that an employee of a national rental chain was feigning total disability for months and was entitled to no benefits.
• Representation of a furniture retailer in defending against a claim made by a disgruntled worker for unemployment compensation and a subsequent lawsuit for workers’ compensation retaliation.
• Representation of a large forgings producer in a workers’ compensation appeal by asserting that the trial court did not have the jurisdiction to hear case.
• Representation of a national market research firm, which had 150 Ohio employees, before the Court of Appeals in Columbus in an unemployment compensation contributions dispute.
• Representation of a manufacturing employer in post-accident investigation following worksite fatality.
• Representation of clients at Industrial Commission hearings. Few employers realize that only their attorneys are authorized to cross-examine witnesses and argue facts and points of law to the Commission’s hearing officers. Other representatives, even if they are attorneys, can simply present facts on behalf of employers. This distinction was important when, on behalf of a steel fabricator, one of the Group’s attorneys  successfully argued that a claimant was not entitled to the hefty percentage permanent partial disability award that he requested for the loss of his arm.
• Representation of an aerospace parts manufacturing client in a workers’ compensation court appeal and a court case involving disability discrimination and workers’ compensation retaliation. Won a two-day arbitration hearing and settled retaliation and workers’ compensation cases.
• Representation of a metal fabricator in resolving an OSHA complaint, VSSR, and workers’ compensation claim from an employee’s accident resulting in the amputation of a finger.
• Represented Shearer’s Foods, LLC in matters including, conducting #metoo Sexual Harassment and union avoidance trainings at five facilities, OSHA investigations in Ohio and Iowa, a discrimination lawsuit in Oregon, a business defamation claim in Nevada, a class action in Ohio and a wrongful death claim against four supervisors in Iowa state court arising out of the same incident.
• Representation of The Service Companies, Inc. in a putative class action of 170+ class members brought by four former employees seeking damages for unpaid time based on piece rate compensation. We took over in the middle of the case after preliminary class certification and opposition to certification briefs were filed.