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Post by Rip Van Riper |
I’ve spent the majority of my legal career defending businesses in workers’ compensation claims. I’ve been on both sides of the bench…having served a six-year term on the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. That being said, I am calling upon my years of experience to give some careful observations in my blog posts. The goal, the improvement of the workers’ compensation system as a whole. For Part 2 of my blog, Much Ado about Everything…in Workers’ Comp, I’d like to address the myth of the noble claimant.
Let me paint you a picture: Claimant is sometimes portrayed as a laborer in a factory with three children and a wife at home in their small neat, white house. The worker has been employed for 10 years at his job. Each day, he puts on his denim uniform and goes to the factory. He takes his family to the county fair in his old Chevrolet and attends the local church where he plays softball. At Christmas, he has a wonderful family time where his youngest son, who was born with a foot deformity says “God Bless us everyone!” He is injured when a machine breaks and a metal part sticks into his hand. He needs the workers’ comp to pay his rent and get his youngest (Tim) an orthopedic shoe.