TN Employers to Pay Less for Firing Injured Workers.

The Daily News Journal reports the cold, hard truth about Gov. Bill Haslam's (R-TN) proposed new Workers' Comp law:  The new law would allow employers to take a discount when firing injured workers making a legitimate Workers' Comp claim.

This represents a new low for the Tennessee legislature when it comes to protecting the backbone of the state:  It's workers.  A fast track by the governor threatens to create a new bureaucracy that supporters confess will be a multi-million dollar burden on tax payers and will now give a break to employers when they fire able bodied workers.  With higher costs for taxpayers, rewards for employers targeting injured workers, and more hardships for the injured, we may have one of the most perfectly awful bills seen out of Nashville in years.

Misti Bryant Makes the Front Page for a Good Cause!

Hogs for the Cause is a great cook-off that raises funds for the families of children with pediatric brain cancer.  Misti Bryant, from our New Orleans office is part of the Sweet Swine 'O' Mine BBQ team competing this weekend and has landed herself on the front page of The Tinmes Picayune NOLA.com page.  The festivities and events begin Friday with the cook-off in full swing on Saturday.  Drop by city park fo good food and a good cause!

HOGS FOR THE CAUSEA barbecue competition and festival to raise money for families coping with pediatric brain cancer.

• Friday, March 22: A new Friday Night Tailgate Experience will open the gates of City Park's Festival Grounds from 4 to 11 p.m. The public will be allowed to mingle with the teams as they cook and hold fundraising parties. Drinks and food will be sold. Also on Friday night, the Fatback Collective, an A-team of star chefs, will cook for the new Southern Asado gala dinner, a meal in the style of Argentine meat feasts.

• Saturday, March 23, 11 a.m.: Professional chefs and backyard barbecue enthusiasts vie for bragging rights and pig-topped trophies in the Ben Sarrat Jr. "High on the Hog" Cookoff. Teams sell samples of their dishes to the public. There also will be live music on two stages.

• Where: City Park Festival Grounds.

• Cost: Friday Night Tailgate Experience tickets are $5; the Southern Asado gala dinner tickets are $300, and general admission for the barbecue festival and cookoff are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. Details: Hogs for the Cause. 

BOOM Jackson Awards Pollan Dobbs, PLLC

We are proud to announce that BOOM Jackson Magazine recently visited our Jackson, MS office and selected Pollan Dobbs, PLLC as the office with the "Coolest View" in their Coolest Office article! Pick up a copy around town or click above and check out the article and photo shoot!

Tennessee Bar Journal Cautions Against Reckless New Workers' Comp Laws

The Tennessee Bar Journal has published an article by David H. Dunaway concerning proposed new changes in TN Workers' Compensation Law.  Even the the Program's biggest supporters admit a minimum $600,000 increase in costs before factoring in new support staff and logistics--all to handle the current workload.  Dunaway adds:

From 2004, until 2011, there has been a 71% reduction in the litigation of workers’ compensation claims. This also means that the Insurance Industry has saved 71% of its previous costs. One can hardly say that the Court system is awry. Additionally, since 2004, workers’ compensation disability benefits have also been reduced by 40% across the board. Now the out­of-state consultants who have recommended the current administration’s draft reform have created an unprecedented amount of rulemaking, and have quietly placed the costs of the administration of workers’ compensation benefits on the backs of the taxpayers, for the benefit of the insurance industry through which these costs were previously paid. 

No honest conservative can look at a 71% reduction in litigation and a 40% reduction in benefits paid and then claim this new law is the "answer".  Creating a new taxpayer funded bureaucracy that costs more and does a worse job protecting workers benefits one group:  The Insurance Industry.  

Contact your Tennessee legislator today and tell them to vote NO on new government agencies to help insurance companies while taxpayers pick up the tab!  

Gov. Haslam' Workers' Comp Plan Creates New Problems

The Tennessean's Bobby Allyn has reported on deepening concerns about new Workers' Compensation legislation.  In Gov. Haslam's Workers' Comp Reform Plan Causes Concern the real cost of 'reform' are beginning to appear.

State lawmakers have long sought ways to streamline the multimillion-dollar workers’ compensation system, and both workers and employers agree that the system, plagued with long delays and what many see as ineffective solutions, could run more smoothly.
Under Haslam’s plan, a new state agency would handle all claim disputes. Instead of moving to the courthouse after that, which is how the system operates now, the new agency would hear nearly all appeals.

This move streamlines the court system by creating an new entirely new administrative court system and attached bureaucracy to the same workload.  The risk here is a double loss for Tennesseans:  fewer legal rights for workers while doubling administrative cost.  Nothing in the plan has moved to control premium costs for employers or protect workers from unscrupulous insurance companies trying to game the system.  One form of 'simplification' is to deny workers the basic right of choosing their own doctor.

Quite bluntly, it's only pro-business if your business is insurance and only pro-worker if you manage never to get hurt.  Tennessee tax payers will feel the pain universally.