workplace injury

Dying at Work

December 22, 2016 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Injury Lawyer Matt Arnold answers the question: “What if I am unable to work following the accident, as a result of my injuries? Will I be able to recover my lost wages?”

Though it seems hard to imagine, thousands of people go to work each year and fail to make it home safely at the end of the day. These people are merely trying to earn a living and provide for their families, but due to some unexpected incident, almost always outside of their control, they end up losing their lives instead. Though it’s tragic this should occur at all, the hope is that it happens as little as possible. Unfortunately, a recent article in the New York Times indicates that fatal workplace accidents may actually be ticking back up, with final numbers from 2015 ranking highest since 2008.

Labor Advocates Celebrate New OSHA Rule for Workplace Injuries

June 14, 2016 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Personal injury Lawyer Matt Arnold answers the question: “What qualifies a person to receive Workers’ Compensation benefits?”

Despite the millions of U.S. workers each year who report a workplace injury or illness, there are countless other workplace injuries that go unreported. Incentives for not reporting (and disincentives for reporting) keep many workers from ever reporting their injuries, barring them from filing for workers’ compensation to receive wage compensation and medical treatment.

Welfare of Nursing Home Patients Often Linked to Wellbeing of Nurses

May 10, 2016 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question “What constitutes nursing home negligence?”

A recent study indicates that problems with care at nursing homes across the country may be linked to the poor quality of life of those working in the nursing facilities. The study revealed that nursing assistants are frequently underpaid, overworked, have bad benefits, lack opportunities for advancement and suffer high rates of workplace injury. These problems combine to make it difficult for nursing homes to recruit and, even more importantly, retain quality staff. The high turnover rates are problems not only for staff and the facilities that employ them, but for those patients who depend on their care.

Two Employees Die In North Carolina Workplace Accident

December 29, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What qualifies a person to receive Workers’ Compensation benefits?”

It is genuinely tragic to think that someone simply trying to earn a living and provide for their family might leave for work in the morning and not make it home in the evening. Fortunately, the frequency with which such tragedies occur has decreased over the past several decades thanks to increasingly tough regulations and enforcement by federal and state workplace safety agencies. Though things have improved, it’s important to remember that hundreds of people die across the country each and every year due to lapses of workplace safety procedures, meaning hundreds of families suffer through the loss of a loved one who was only trying get to work.

Teacher claims student bullies forced her into early retirement

March 10, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

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.

Company’s treatment of breastfeeding employee a case of what not to do

December 9, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

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.

The 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.