Injuries on Your Way to Work
If you get hurt on your way to or from work, your injuries may be covered by workers’ comp. Although, in general, injuries sustained by an employee while commuting to and from work are outside of the workers’ compensation coverage, there are some exceptions. In a recent decision of Hohlt v. University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that a state employee was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for the injuries she sustained when she slipped and fell on an ice-covered sidewalk curb ramp while walking to her car after work. The fact that she was not on the... Read More
Becoming Disabled After a Work Injury
When your work-related injuries or illness are too severe to go back to work, you have several options to replace your lost income. You could consider permanent total disability through work comp, long term disability through a STD/LTD insurer, and Social Security Disability Insurance. At Farrish Johnson Law Office, we routinely help our clients with their disability cases. If you are considering going on disability, give us a call to get more information about your options. As mentioned above, when you are at the point where you do not think you could go back to work in the foreseeable future... Read More
America’s 10 Most Dangerous Occupations and How Work-Related Fatalities are Treated by the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation System
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics December 16, 2016, Economic News Release, there were a total of 4,836 recorded work injuries that resulted in death in 2015, which amounted to an overall rate of fatalities of 3.38 per 100,000 full-time workers. While there are multiple contributing factors, like workers’ age, training and experience, based on the government statistics, your chances of getting killed on the job are much higher if you work in the following occupations: 1. Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations – 25.3 (deaths per 100,000 workers) 2. Supervisors of construction and extraction workers – 16.1 3.... Read More
Your Workers’ Compensation Questions Answered
What happens when my doctor takes me off work or puts me on restrictions because of my work injury? The answer depends on your line of work and how bad your work injury is. When you get hurt, your doctor may decide that you should take some time off work or limit your work activities. For example, if you pull a muscle in your back or injure your shoulder, and your job requires you to do heavy lifting or use your arms a lot, your doctor will write a Report of Workability that will either order you to stay off... Read More
New Minnesota Estate Planning Legislation
The Minnesota legislature recently enacted legislation that impacts estate planning. Two of the more interesting new laws include: A prohibition of using the location of a taxpayer’s attorney in determining the residency of a tax payer and The tax bill raises Minnesota’s estate tax exemption to $2.1 million for 2017 (retroactive to January 1) and an additional $300,000 each year until it hits $3 million in 2010. Unfortunately, one proposal we closely watched failed to make the cut: Allowing married farm couples to retain agricultural homestead status despite splinting their property into two trusts. If you have questions about this... Read More
Governor Dayton Signed Amendment to Disability Accomodation Legislation
On May 23, 2017, Governor Dayton signed critical legislation to protect Minnesota businesses from “drive-by” ADA lawsuits. The amendment will affect lawsuits alleging “architectural barriers” at places of public accommodation. Now, before filing a lawsuit, a person’s attorney must send a “safe harbor” notice to the business giving the business 60 days to remove the noted barrier (and up to an additional 30 days if weather prevents timely removal). Although no such notice is required to bring a claim under federal ADA law, this amendment may significantly reduce so-called “drive-by” ADA lawsuits plaguing Minnesota businesses by taking away a “drive-by”... Read More
Farrish Johnson Instrumental In Federal Court Immigration Case
Farrish Johnson attorney Will Partridge acted as pro bono counsel in a lawsuit filed in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. The lawsuit challenged Nobles County’s practice of holding undocumented persons pursuant to detainers placed on them by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) past the time they should have been released from State custody. In this case the plaintiff’s wife attempted to post bail on her husband’s relatively minor criminal charge. Nobles County refused to accept bail because her husband was subject to an ICE detainer. As a result, the lawsuit claimed that the plaintiff had... Read More
How Workers’ Compensation Claims Start
After injury or sickness has occurred on the job, it is the employee’s responsibility to start the workers’ compensation process and the first step is reporting the event or incident to the employer. Reporting the injury to your employer is an important part of the process. It is called “giving a notice” to the employer. There are many ways to notify the employer about the injury. It could be as simple as telling the supervisor or manager about what happened, or giving a doctor’s note to the superiors or human resources, or any other way that conveys the message that... Read More
Henrietta Lacks, Oprah, Science and the Right of Privacy
Oprah’s HBO movie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, based on the New York Times bestseller, highlights the issues between ethics, race, medicine and the right of privacy. Henrietta Lacks, a poor, black, cancer-stricken woman had tissue taken from her without her consent in the 1950’s. Her cells, known as HeLa, became an important part in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, cloning and gene mapping and have been used in the medical field since the early 1950’s for medical research. For years her own family had no idea her cells were being used in this... Read More
Update! Revocable Trust Reporting
In March, Farrish Johnson Law Office let you know about pending Minnesota legislation regarding revocable trust reporting to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (find the article here). Now, Governor Dayton recently signed legislation providing that the trustee of a revocable trust with respect to which either the settlor, the settlor’s spouse, or both, are the primary beneficiaries during the settlor’s lifetime shall not be required to file with the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture a corporate farm application seeking approval to allow the trust to hold agricultural real estate during any period that the trust is revocable. This legislation... Read More