Articles Posted in Workplace Injury

Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What should I do if I have been injured by another party but I can’t afford a lawyer?”

A woman who is married to an American National Football League player has sued the investment firm that terminated her employment, alleging that her dismissal was based on racism and sexism.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Should I trust the insurance adjuster?”

Legislation culled from so-called “bill-mill” American Legislative Exchange Council’s library of plaintiff-unfriendly proposals has become the law of the land in the State of Arizona, and personal injury attorneys are crying foul. They say the bill Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law last Thursday will prevent victims of asbestos exposure from recovering the damages they are owed.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What happens when the employer refuses to acknowledge my claim?”

Politicians, celebrities and school districts around the United States have joined forces in a campaign to end bullying. That campaign, however, has been geared at ending bullying of students in American schools.

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Can my employer fire me because I filed a workers’ compensation claim?”

 

A mother-of-two who was ordered to breastfeed in a supply closet at work has settled a sex harassment lawsuit she brought against her employer.

Breastfeeding Charlotte Injury Lawyer Workers compensation AttorneyThe woman—Monica Van De Pitte—said a picture of a cow was taped to the door of the supply room at the Lake Oswego, Oregon-based Velocitel, a wireless network company. The picture was posted after coworkers “mooed” at Van De Pitte and others who were breastfeeding at work, and was meant to direct her and other mothers where to go to breastfeed at the office.

A coworker told Van De Pitte that others in the office thought breastfeeding was “gross.”

Van De Pitte said she explained to her bosses when she was hired that she would need a private place to breastfeed her young son, but that the “mooing” and “colleagues openly bragg[ing] about their sex lives” affected her so much that she struggled to produce enough milk to feed her son once she was alone in the room.

Van De Pitte ultimately resigned from her position in 2013 and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company.

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Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

 

A graduate student who was denied a summer internship at a textile company because of her use of medical marijuana has brought an employment discrimination lawsuit against the company.

Medical marijuana Charlotte Injury Lawyer North Carolina Negligence AttorneyThe attorney who represents the student, Carly Iafrate of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the legalization of medical marijuana would be “an empty promise” if employers are allowed to discriminate against people based on their status as medical marijuana users.

The ACLU said it believes it is the first lawsuit of its kind brought in the state.

Lawsuits have been brought in other states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana, including New Mexico, Maine, Colorado and New Jersey. The New Mexico, Maine and New Jersey cases are still pending in courts in each of those states.

Last month, a Colorado quadriplegic named Brandon Coats lost an appeal in that state’s Supreme Court. Coats was fired in 2010 after failing a drug test. He said he used medical marijuana to control involuntary muscle spasms. Colorado’s high court ruled that legalizing the use of medical marijuana did not establish a Constitutional right to use the drug.

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Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What happens when the employer refuses to acknowledge my claim?”

 

Chris Beck Charlotte Mecklenburg Injury Lawyer North Carolina Medical malpractice AttorneyMilitary regulations require the immediate dismissal of any service member who is found to be transgender. That is placing the some 15,500 transgender people serving in the military in a quandary, and forcing peers, supervisors and military doctors who are aware of members’ status to “look the other way,” according to sources and advocates interviewed by the Washington Post.

Political leaders from President Barack Obama to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have expressed support for examining the ban and, potentially, lifting it. The Pentagon, however, told the Post that no review was underway, and Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, worries that transgender service members are being lulled into a false sense of security.

Chris Beck 2 Charlotte Mecklenburg Injury Lawyer North Carolina Wrongful Death AttorneyShe said openly transgender service members risk losing their jobs. Some two dozen service members have been discharged in the past two years after their transgender status was uncovered, according to advocates.

Military leaders are focused now on more urgent priorities such as the conflict with the Islamic State raging in Iraq and Syria and looming budget cuts. Army Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock told the Post that the military will eventually “do the right thing” by allowing transgender service members to serve openly. The change is just not going to occur as soon as some would like.

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Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

 

A Pennsylvania high school security guard made headlines in April when he endured a knife in the chest while helping to apprehend a young man who allegedly stabbed twenty students with a pair of eight-inch kitchen knives.

Old man Charlotte Car accident attorney North Carolina Injury LawyerNow the man, John Resetar, is making headlines again, but this time he is not being hailed as a hero. This time he is a victim of age discrimination, his lawyer Tim Dawson said. Dawson said Resetar sustained the stab wound on a Wednesday and was back at school the following Monday. The knife pierced Resetar’s chest cavity to within an inch of his heart. Dawson said Resetar is a former linebacker who is a “young seventy,” young enough, the lawyer said, to keep his job.

Officials with Pittsburgh-based Capital Asset Protection Inc. thought otherwise. They fired Resetar for no good reason, according to Dawson. Resetar received a letter on Aug. 4 from Capital and Franklin Regional High School informing him of his termination. Resetar said he was upset by the way the school handled the termination. “Nobody would sit down and talk to me and tell me to my face,” he told the Daily Mail.

An assistant superintendent with the school district suggested that the decision to terminate Resetar was Capital’s, and the matter was out of the school district’s control. She said she was surprised that the letter Capital sent to Resetar mentioned the school district and said she was working to obtain further information about the firing.

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Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

 

Strange things were afoot at the Circle K store in Phoenix, Arizona where Jeremy Willey worked. He thought he was having one of the worst days of his life on May 24 when a masked robber entered the store, tied Willey up and administered a brutal pistol whipping.

Brain Scan Charlotte Mecklenburg Injury Lawyer North Carolina Workplace Injury AttorneyTurns out the pistol whipping saved Willey’s life.

Willey’s cuts required stitches; to be on the safe side, doctors took X-rays of his skull. The X-rays showed the robber hadn’t inflicted any serious damage, but doctors discovered something far worse: a massive tumor growing in Willey’s brain. Willey had been asymptomatic and likely would have remained so, doctors said. The tumor would have progressed to the point at which Willey would have gone to sleep one night and would not have woken up again. Doctors said they caught the slow-growing tumor just in time.

The tumor is benign—meaning its cells will not spread to other parts of Willey’s body—but it may take as many as three surgeries to fully remove it due to its size. Willey has undergone one of the surgeries already. The first surgery has left Willey partially paralyzed.

Willey’s wife, Alisha, said it was difficult to feel thankful towards someone who had violently attacked her husband. Security footage captured images of the robber. The images showed the man striking Willey across the back of his head with a gun. The robber has not been caught.

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Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “If I am injured in a car accident or at work what should I do?”

 

Officials in Raleigh say that one worker fell to his death at a busy construction site earlier this week, the second serious workplace accident in the area so far this year. Police say that Gabriel Andrade was working on scaffolding when he fell approximately five stories.

 

Construction Renovation Charlotte Injury Lawyer North Carolina Wrongful Death AttorneyA colleague of Andrade’s called 911 immediately after the fall, but by the time emergency responders arrived he had succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. Andrade was only 30 years old and leaves behind a devastated family. Investigators say that they have no reason to suspect foul play, saying that the fall was instead a fairly common construction site accident. Officials with the North Carolina Department of Labor say they will be looking into the incident and will be checking to see if the proper safety procedures were followed at the worksite.

 

Sadly, the accident was the second serious construction accident in Raleigh in only a few days. Earlier this month, three workers at a construction site at North Carolina State University were seriously injured after the raised platform they were standing on collapsed. Officials say the construction workers were on the platform to assist a crane operator who was lifting a steel beam into place inside the new student center.

 

The platform that the workers were standing on collapsed, sending all three men crashing at least eight feet to the ground below. One of the workers hurt his back while the second injured his legs. The third worker sustained a serious head injury and was taken to WakeMed for treatment.

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