Lawyering
Thoughts, opinions, musing. Things you think about when you’re an attorney.
Our friend, and fellow attorney, Andrew Bribriesco, wrote an amazing article explaining why and how workers’ benefits under Iowa’s workers’ compensation laws are a rip off for employees, particularly those who worked a lot of overtime or who get employee benefits beyond their wages. Overtime wages do not count dollar-for-dollar and there is no consideration…
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On 9/1/21, the Iowa Court of Appeals held that under Iowa Code section 85.39, when the company doctor gives an opinion that an injury is not work-related, that is the same thing as the doctor saying that the worker has 0% impairment from a work injury. Under section 85.39, if an employee believes that the…
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Jennifer is proud to represent Mary Deng in a workers’ compensation claim against Farmland Foods, Inc., now known as Smithfield Foods, Inc., in Denison, which is pending before the Iowa Supreme Court. The issue in the case is whether the Claimant’s rotator cuff injury is a “shoulder” injury under the new law passed in 2017,…
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Today, in Bauer v. Brinkman, No. 20-0563, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously upheld a grant of summary judgment in favor of Mr. Bradley Brinkman who was sued by Richard Bauer, a local landlord. Bauer sued Brinkman after Brinkman posted on Facebook, among other things, that Bauer was a “slumlord” in the community. Many people saw…
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In Iowa, if two parents exercise shared physical care (aka 50/50 in common parlance), the required child support order(s) end up being way less because they are off-setting. For the parent who doesn’t really care as much about being a shared caretaker, but who more cares about not getting gouged in child support, he or…
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Manufacturing workers, particularly meat packing workers, have extremely difficult and dangerous jobs.
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If you are injured at work in Iowa and use a personal vehicle to get to medical appointments, you are entitled to reimbursement for your round trip mileage – not your gas receipt, which is too low, and not the outrageous amount of money your “friend” charged you to drive you to your appointment. Try…
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This week, I had a work comp carrier admit, after several communications from me, that it was underpaying my client $170.22 per week! I regularly see underpayments by carriers in my practice, but this was the largest I’ve seen in a while. If you have a 10% impairment to your back, in Iowa, that’s a…
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