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W.R. Grace and Co. has announced that it will fund a trust for resolving all current and future asbestos-related personal-injury claims. The company entered bankruptcy 7 years ago with 135,000 asbestos claims pending.

The State of Iowa joins many other States who will not implement the 6th Edition of the AMA Guides. This follows mounting criticism against the use of the 6th Ed. of the AMA Guides to determine workers’ compensation disability.

If Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way the battered advocacy system for injured workers in California is about to get hit again.

State governments throughout the United States are now delaying implementation of the 6th Edition of the AMA guides as a standard to determine permanent disability.

In 1951, Chief Justice Arthur T. Vanderbilt, of the New Jersey Supreme Court, wrote to his friend Sidney Teiser, in Portland, Oregon, proposing that an informal group interested in legal history and biography get together at the next annual meeting of the American Bar Association.

A recent study by the federal government reports that some disabled workers who receive workers' compensation or public disability benefits may be worse off economically than if they had not claimed multiple benefits.

NuvaRing® is a vaginal ring contraceptive medication that was approved by the FDA in October 2001. The drug is manufactured by Organon USA, Inc., based in New Jersey, which was acquired by Schering-Plough Corporation in 2007. Since its initial FDA approval and use on the market, NuvaRing® has been linked to serious venous thromboembolic events including blood clots, pulmonary embolism, stroke and myocardial infarction, or heart attack.
 

The final economic stimulus package, passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, will provide “rebates” to millions of Social Security beneficiaries. The legislation was signed into law by the President on February 13, 2008. All Title II beneficiaries who meet the rebate eligibility criteria – including disabled beneficiaries – will receive the rebate.

With Governor Spitzer now embroiled in a major scandal that may end in his resignation as Governor of the State of New York, all eyes in the workers’ compensation arena are now focused on his reform efforts. On February 27, 2007 shortly after taking office he signed landmark legislation to overhaul the NY system.

Workers' compensation insurance companies have a long history of guarding themselves from liability from asbestos exposure issues. Recently the NJ courts have ruled that workers' compensation insurance companies are shielded from liability when the insurance company performs hygiene studies and does not take action to protect the employees that it has insured under the policy.