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 Click here to listen to the recording of the COVID-19 Claims and Workers’ Compensation Law Webinar. The program was originally broadcast on June 11, 2020.

Jon Gelman has been listed again to Best Lawyers in America®. This recognition has been bestowed upon him for almost 3 decades. 

Jon Gelman, a plaintiffs' litigation firm for over 4 decades, announces today that U.S. News & World Report has named the firm to its 2016 Best Law Firms.

Now you can have Now you can have Workers’ Compensation Law, 3d (Vol. 38-39A, NJ Practice Series, available conveniently on your mobile device.

After 16 years of bankrutcy, the $3.5 Billion asbestos trust of Pittsburg Cornning Corporation (PPG) opened for the business of paying asbestos victims and their famiies. PPG anounce that that the payment plan provided for under the asbestos companies bankruptcy reorganization plan ffective April 27, 2016. 

Johnson & Johnson continues to be hit with verdicts in cancer cases flowing from exposure to its baby powder that contained talc.

  The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited AJR Landscaping Inc. – based in Cresskill, New Jersey – for exposing employees to carbon monoxide (CO) after two workers succumbed to the toxic gas.

This marks the 27th year the AFL-CIO has produced a report on the state of safety and health protections for America’s workers. It features state and national information on workplace fatalities, injuries, illnesses, the number and frequency of workplace inspections, penalties, funding, staffing and public employee coverage under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. It also includes information on the state of mine safety and health.

 Risk of mesothelioma continues after exposure and does not diminish with age.

 At least 107, 000 workers die every year from diseases caused by exposure to asbestos

 Recently release statistics from the US Geological Survey brings some hope to reducing asbestos disease in the US. 

The New York Times is reporting this afternoon that The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has approved for compensation payments 50 types of cancers from the $4.3 Billion Zadroga 9-11 Fund.

 The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) which combines education, advocacy, and community to provide a unified voice for asbestos victims, today announced with the Canadian Voices of Asbestos Victims the release of the North American Declaration to Eliminate Asbestos-Related Diseases.

  A Delaware Bankruptcy Judge has approved a reorganization plan  for the former asbestos manufacturer, WR Grace.

  Cooper Industries has reportedly settled an indemnification  lawsuit. and agreed to pay Pneumo Abex asbestos trust $307.5 Million. The trust funds will be used to pay victims of asbestos exposure.

A lawsuit was filed alleging that a former pharmaceutical maintenance specialist at Hoffman-LaRoche in Nutley, New Jersey was exposed to asbestos fiber and suffers from asbestosis. 

A lawsuit was filed alleging that a former auto mechanic, who worked in auto body shops throughout New Jersey, was exposed to asbestos fiber and suffers from lung cancer.

TheRaytech Trust, encompassing the claims of The Raybestos Manhattan and Raymark Industries, Inc.,  has established a bar date for asbestos liability claims.

  The US Department of Veterans Affairs  has now recognized that veterans may be at an increased risk for the development of mesothelioma, a cancer associated with exposure to asbestos fiber.

 A lawsuit was filed alleging that a former chemical operator at Hoffman-LaRoche in Nutley, New Jersey was exposed to asbestos fiber and died of mesothelioma. 

Fireman's Fund Insurance Company a Division of Allianz has announced that it will increase its asbestos and environmental risks reserve by $301 Million. The company stated, "The move follows the completion of its regular independent external asbestos exposure review."

A vaccine has been demonstrated as safe for potential use against mesothelioma. The research, conducted by Netherlands scientists was reported in an advance publication of  the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care.

Legal Talk Network Host and Attorney Alan S. Pierce welcomes Jon L. Gelman to discuss health care and workers’ compensation and the Occupational Disease Pilot Program:

The St. Paul Travelers Companies, Inc. announced that it has executed an agreement resolving substantially all common law asbestos-related direct actions pending against its Travelers Property Casualty Corp. subsidiaries ("Travelers"). These actions allege, among other things, a general, non-statutory duty to disclose to the public the hazards of asbestos. The settlement, if it receives court approval, would also bar similar future direct actions against Travelers. 

PPG Industries (Pittsburg Corning Corp.) and its insurers plan to pay out millions of dollars to victims of asbestos disease. In a bankruptcy reorganization plan filed with the Court for its approval, it was announced that PPG intended to pay out $825 Million in cash over the next 15 years.

 "Sufficient evidence is now available to show that asbestos also causes cancer of the larynx and of the ovary."

Our modern electronic world has many benefits and conveniences, but the free flow of information also creates privacy concerns. In the realm of health care, privacy protections are needed to preserve patients’ dignity and prevent harms such as discrimination. But such protections can also have unintended consequences for health care, and the health research that is vital for making medical advances. More than 10 years ago Congress called for a set of federal standards, now known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule, to protect the privacy of personally identifiable health information while still allowing the flow of information needed to promote high-quality health care.

The US Supreme Court has decided to review a decision interpreting a 1986 Bankruptcy confirmation plan order. The order formed the basis of a settlement by Travelers Insurance Company to resolve claims against it for conspiracy in concealing information about the dangers of asbestos.
 

Asbestos exposure continues to have high rates of death in the US.

The Canadian delegation to the Rotterdam Convention was able to lobby effectively to prohibit a ban on asbestos for another two years. The Canadian mines will continue to churn out the killer fiber and ship it to unsuspecting countries as a result of an effective major lobbying effort of the Canadians to sway the votes of India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

 At a recent hearing of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Senator Max Baucus presented a report revealing that the Federal government failed to take the appropriate action to declare Libby, Montana a public health emergency in 2002. The disregard of the federal government led to a lack of funding and manpower in cleaning up the asbestos contamination according to the Senator.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has established a resource on the Internet that provides a direct link to resources available concerning mesothelioma: treatment, prevention, genetics, causes, clinical trials, literature, statistics and research and related information.

The US Geological Survey has reported that NJ ranks 2nd highest in the number of naturally occurring asbestos sites (mines) in the Eastern US.

A new set of drugs has been reported responsive in treating mesothelioma, a tumor caused by exposure to asbestos fiber. The British Journal of Cancer has reported that cisplatin and vinorelbine effective in the treatment of mesothelioma.

Almost 45 years following the historic 1964 NY Academy of Medicine conference in New York experts continue to memorialize the history of asbestos related disease. Now enters, defense expert John E. Craighead, who has written his viewpoint on the subject.
 

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.

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.

NJ JURY AWARD $30.3 MILLION - MESO TRIAL - FEB. 2008
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- A jury has reached what is believed to be the highest
asbestos verdict ever in New Jersey, awarding $30.3 million to the surviving
family members of a former automotive worker.

Federal-Mogul Corp., auto parts manufacturer, won court approval of a reorganization plan that resolves potentionally $9.4 billion of dollars in asbestos claims that forced the company into bankruptcy six years ago.

Asbestos, a know cancer causing agent, has been found in toys still being sold in the US. The CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit and two brands of children's play clay along with many household products still in stores for sale have been reported by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO).

Dana Corp. won approval of the US Bankruptcy Court for the potential resolution of 150,000 asbestos claims against the auto parts manufacturer. The settlement will be paid from insurance proceeds.

The US EPA (Environmental; Protection Agency) has published an announcement to seek appointments to its Scientific Advisory Panel with asbestos experts in short course. In a notice published in the Federal Register on October 26, 2007 the US EPA announced a deadline of November 16, 2007.

The British House of Lords in a recent decision has take a step backward in time and has ruled that those who suffer pleural plaques (scarring of the lungs) as a result of asbestos exposure are unable to claim compensation. Parliament declared, " If the pleural plaques are not in themselves damage, do they become damage when aggregated with the risk which they evidence or the anxiety which that risk causes? In principle, neither the risk of future injury nor anxiety at the prospect of future injury is actionable. "

NYC CONNECTS AN EXPOSURE TO 911
For the First Time, the City Connects a Death to 9/11 Dust 
New York City’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, has for the first time directly linked a death to exposure to dust from the destruction of the World Trade Center. 

Bankruptcy Court Approves Owens Corning’s Plan of Reorganization. Toledo, Ohio – September 26, 2006 – Owens Corning (OWENQ.OB) today announced
that Judge Judith Fitzgerald of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of
Delaware approved the company’s Plan of Reorganization. The Bankruptcy Court’s
approval of the plan paves the way for Owens Corning to emerge from bankruptcy by
the end of October 2006.

NJ WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS DECLINE
The NJ DWC reported a 5% decline in the filing of claims in 2005 (37,248) from 2004 (39,212). The statistic also represents a 31% decline from 1992 (54,164). This is consistent with the 25% decline in the number of indemnity claims paid in NJ from from 1992 to 2002 as reported by NJ CRIB. NJ Medical costs have soared 108% during the same period of time while indemnity has risen only 48%..

TAINTED TISSUE AND BONES USED IN TRANSPLANTS 

 The Congressional Budget Office again indicted that the proposed asbestos reform trust fund would be inadequate. In a letter to Senator Spector it commented as follows: "The proposed trust fund might or might not have adequate resources to pay all valid claims. There is a significant likelihood that the fund’s revenues would fall short of the amount needed to pay valid claims, debt service, and administrative costs. There is also some elihood that the fund’s revenues would be sufficient to meet those needs. The final outcome cannot be predicted with great certainty.

Statement of Jon L. Gelman Attorney at Law Before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing on the Fairness in Asbestos Resolution Act of 2005 January 11, 2005

 The International Labour Conference (ILO) in Geneva reported that cancer was the cause of 32% of the world wide job related deaths in the world.

FRAGRANCE AND FLAVOR INDUSTRY HIT WITH $15 MILLION VERDICT Jury Awards $15 Million in Making of Popcorn -This self regulated industry becomes prime target.
A jury on Friday awarded a former popcorn-plant worker $15 million after finding that his exposure to butter-flavoring fumes led to his severe respiratory problems.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is now considering proposed Federal legislation that will have significant impact upon Workers' Compensation systems throughout the United States. Since the enactment of workers' compensation legislation decades ago, asbestos and other latent disease claims continue to be an enormous challenge to compensation programs.

NJ: WC JUDGES HAVE DISCRETION TO RULE ON VALIDITY OF A TDB LIEN. In a complex decision involving causal relationship, apportionment of liability and reimbursement of a TDB lien that Appellate Division responded to a statement made by the trial Judge, "...I am no longer a Judge, I am a statutory collection agency for the Labor Department," by reversing his decision and remanding the matter for hearing.

Esther Weissman, 73, labor lawyer, helped to alter compensation law.

WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIM FREQUENCY DOWN. NCCI announced that the decline in claim frequency continued through 2004. Over the last five years there have been significant declines for all types on injuries. However medical costs continues to be the leading driver of costs. The medical share of total workers' compensation costs has now risen to 55% countrywide and in some states is approaching 70%. 

CMS TO ISSUE NEW MEDICARE SECONDARY PAYER GUIDANCE. Under mounting pressure from many organized groups, CMS (The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services) has indicated that it will shortly release a new set of "Questions and Answers" in order to, yet again, redefine its procedures. 

NY WORKERS' COMPENSATION RATES. New York Rates: Follow the Bouncing Ball. New York is famous for being a high cost state for workers compensation. By any reasonable measure, New York falls within the top four states for high comp cost, sharing the dubious spotlight with California, Texas and Florida 

Cancer Reported as the Leading Cause of Job Fatalities in the World - New Report Reveals That Medicare is Covering $23 Billion in Medical Costs That Should be Paid by Workers' Compensation 

OWENS CORNING'S ASBESTOS LIABILITIES SET AT $7 BILLION BY FEDERAL JUDGE
OC's asbestos liability put at $7 billion by U.S. Judge. Choosing a midpoint between estimates of opposing creditor groups, a federal judge has ruled that Owens Corning is exposed to $7 billion in potential claims by people who were made sick by exposure to asbestos insulation produced by the firm until the early 1970s. 

W.R. Grace and Executives, in Asbestos Concealment Action. Charged With Fraud, Obstruction of Justice, and Endangering Libby Montana Community 

2nd Annual THIS YEAR IN WORKERS’ COMP: TOP 10 ISSUES & CASES - Tues., Mar. 8, 2005
A panel of state and national experts address TEN issues that can make or break your case, including a concise analysis of key cases that have been decided during the past year.

New Report Reveals That Medicare is Covering $23 Billion in Medical Costs That Should be Paid by Workers' Compensation --$4.2 Billion Halliburton Asbestos Settlement Given Final Approval by Court -- Recent Court Decisions: Dinner Not A Deviation from Employment (NJ Supreme Court) -- Remicade linked to severe hepatic reactions, including acute liver failure, jaundice, hepatitis and cholestasis. -- 2nd Annual This Year in Workers' Compensation - The Top Issues and Cases - March 8, 2005 -- Medicare Secondary Payer Act - Waivers and Compromises CMS -- Social Security Announces 2.7 Percent Benefit Increase for 2005 Monthly Social Security and Supplemental -- FDA Statement on the Halting of a Clinical Trial of the Cox-2 Inhibitor Celebrex  

Vioxx Recalled Worldwide--How to Apply for a Handicapped Placard--Ford Door Latch Personal Litigation--CMS Assist(tm) - New Support Group for Professionals--Gelman to Speak at NOSSCR on Medicare

Who is National Gypsum? Incorporated in Delaware in 1925.Manufacturer and supplier of services for the building and construction industry. Miner of asbestos fibers. Popular trade name: Gold Bond Products
Asbestos products types – drywall, joint compounds, textures, shingles, cement boards, adhesives, acoustical plaster, fireproofing, insulation cement, raw asbestos fiber.

 MEDICAL GUIDELINES IN WC CASES APPROVED BY TEXAS SP CT--"In this opinion, we conclude that the Legislature authorized TWCC to set upper limits on reimbursement amounts and establish a reasonable time limitation on requests for medical dispute resolution

FRUSTRATIONS OF 9-11 VICTIMS SEEKING WORKERS' COMPENSATION--Many Who Served on 9/11 Are Still Pressing Fight for Workers' Compensation. It is in places like Judge Mark Solomon's workers' compensation courtroom in Brooklyn that lingering questions about the health consequences of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center are fought over day after day.

In 1992, the U.S. Congress passed the Workers' Family Protection Act (Public Law 102-522, 29 U.S.C. 671), which requested that the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety And Health (NIOSH) conduct a study to "evaluate the potential for, prevalence of, and issues related to the contamination of workers' homes with hazardous chemicals and substances...transported from the workplaces of such workers."

Asbestos: Federal Mediation Fails to Reach Accord. AIA remains committed to meaningful reform of deeply flawed litigation system. The following statement is in response to the end of negotiations over legislation to establish a national asbestos victims compensation trust fund (S. 2290). The negotiations were mediated by retired Federal Judge Edward Becker. This statement should be attributed to Robert E. Vagley, president of the American Insurance Association (AIA) 

Statement by OSHA Administrator John Henshaw On Worker Memorial Day 2004. "Today is Worker Memorial Day, a day to pay tribute to the men and women who have lost their lives on the job. We mourn with their families and friends, and we recognize that the loss of these very special people extends beyond the home; the loss is felt in schools, places of worship, at social gatherings, in local communities, and throughout the entire nation.

ASBESTOS-Take a look at USAction's new cartoon, “Halliburton's Doggone Good Deal.” First war profiteering, now an asbestos bailout scheme orchestrated by a company with oh-so-close relations to the White House.  

 CANCER RISKS IN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING FACILITIES. A chipmaking trade group said on Thursday that it would sponsor a far-reaching study on cancer risks in semiconductor manufacturing facilities, after years of calls for such an effort by industry critics. 

Being concerned with continuous wide used of asbestos in the world, the EU and ILO convened the European Asbestos Conference in September 2003 in Dresden, Germany. Gerd Albracht, chairman of the Conference, underlined that "mmillions of workers and consumers have been exposed to asbestos dust. Twenty-thousand asbestos related lung cancers and 10,000 mesotheliomas occur annually across the population of Western Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Japan and Australia alone, but developing countries have much higher risks of exposure. In such countries, asbestos is thus a time bomb that looks set to lead to an explosive increase in asbestos related diseases and deaths in the next 20-30 years." 

Government Statistics on deaths due to Asbestos-related disease have been released and appear in a recently released report published by the Environmental Working Group of Washington DC. The report reveals that: Camden, Somerset, Middlesex and Bergen have the highest rates in the State of NJ. At Least 2,775 People Have Been Killed by Asbestos in New Jersey Since 1979

 A significant challenge to the rights of injured workers in third party asbestos litigation was introduced in Congress in 1999 by U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) in what he termed the "Fairness in Asbestos Litigation Act of 1998", S.2546.

New Drug Helps Asbestos-Linked Cancer. First Treatment for Rare Lung Cancer. It's not a cure. But a new drug offers precious extra months of life to people with a rare, asbestos-linked cancer.. The drug, Alimta, from Eli Lilly and Company, today received FDA approval for use in combination with cisplatin chemotherapy. It will be used to treat malignant mesothelioma. It strikes some 2,000 Americans each year, mostly due to asbestos exposure. Worldwide, as many as 15,000 people each year are told they will die of mesothelioma.

 The horrifying true story of the decades-long poisoning of a small town and the definitive exposé of asbestos in America-told by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who broke it.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved Alimta (pemetrexed disodium) for use in combination with cisplatin for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma - a rare type of cancer. Alimta received a priority review and is designated as an orphan drug. It is the first drug approved for this condition.

WORKER AWARDED $12 MILLION - WC BAD FAITH. Court awards $12 million in workers' compensation case. A former nursing home worker has been awarded more than $12 million in a judgment against three insurance companies that denied her workers' compensation claim. The Rapid City jury returned its verdict - $60,000 in compensatory damages and $12 million in punitive damages - last week after a a four-day trial in federal court.''An insurance adjuster is supposed to be like a judge, fair and impartial. ... If you bribe a judge, you get thrown in jail. But they bribe these claims adjusters with bounties that are tied directly to their performance in paying claims.'' 

 US energy firm Halliburton has revealed a $1.1bn (£607m) charge to cover claims from people suffering from asbestos-related diseases. Halliburton, formerly headed by US vice-president Dick Cheney, yesterday revealed a $947m net loss in the fourth quarter of the year, despite a large increase in revenues from its controversial contracts in Iraq.

 One in every hundred men born in the 1940s will die of die of malignant pleural mesothelioma, which is almost exclusively a consequence of exposure to asbestos, with a lag time that is rarely less than 25 years and often more than 50 years from first exposure. Half of all cases are now aged over 70, with 80% in men. For a man first exposed as a teenager, who remained in a high risk occupation, such as insulation, throughout his working life, the lifetime risk of mesothelioma can be as high as one in five.w1 There are now over 1800 deaths per year in Britain (about one in 200 of all deaths in men and one in 1500 in women), and the number is still increasing.1 w2 As exposure in the United Kingdom continued until 1980 the peak of the epidemic is still to come, and we need a strategy to manage these patients.

 The proponents of S.1125, the "Fairness In Asbestos Resolution Act of 2003," have claimed repeatedly that the majority of the awards paid in asbestos cases have gone to individuals who are not truly injured - yet, nothing could be further from the truth. This misleading and false argument is nothing more than an a cynical attempt to use a legal fiction to strengthen a political objective -- which will have the effect of denying injured workers and their families the compensation they deserve.

The remarks of politician/physician Sen. Bill Frist before the Senate show him to be so ill-informed about asbestos disease as to make one wonder if he has ever read a medical journal, let alone familiarized himself with the ins and outs of the asbestos litigation. 

New Jersey lawyers choose the tops in their profession in 24 fields of law.

911 COMPENSATION PROGRAM FAILS--Mount Sinai's Dr. Stephen Levin said most of his Ground Zero patients have been denied workers' compensation coverage. He called the system "dysfunctional."

For 42 years I worked with asbestos on Navy ships and in factories. Now I’m dying of cancer. The asbestos companies knew their product was deadly. It’s there in black and white. That’s why the jury awardedmy family a settlement. ow Congress may pass a law that would bail out these companies by throwing my settlement out the window. I’d have to stand in line and wait for compensation from agiant new federal bureaucracy, which won’t have enough to pay me in the first place.

 CASES--The compensation judge denied)petitioner’s motion for temporary disability and medical benefits regarding a rotator cuff tear in his right shoulder and problems with his left knee. where the compensable injuries he sustained in his work—related accident had to do with his left shoulder, neck and lower back assessing the conflicting medical testimony the compensation judge found that the new problems were not causally related to the work—related, and that conservative treatment, rather than surgery, was recommended for petitioner’s lower-hack problems.

The nation's property and casualty insurers reported capital gains of $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2003, representing a $725 million, or 181 percent, increase over the $400 million recorded during the same period last year, according to Weiss Ratings, Inc., the nation's leading independent provider of ratings and analyses of financial services companies, mutual funds, and stocks. Companies within the Berkshire-Hathaway group accounted for 62.8 percent of the industry's total first-quarter capital gains, earning $706.9 million. 

Occupational exposures to respirable crystalline silica occur in a variety of industries and occupations because of its extremely common natural occurrence and the wide uses of materials and products that contain it. At least 1.7 million U.S. workers are potentially exposed to respirable crystalline silica [NIOSH 1991], and many are exposed to concentrations that exceed limits defined by current regulations and standards.

 Jumpp v. City of Ventnor--Trip to the post office noncompensable deviation--PORITZ, C.J., writing for a majority of the Court. In this case, the Court determines whether a city worker, whose daily activities required him to visit various sites within the city's boundaries, is eligible for workers' compensation benefits when he was accidentally injured during the workday but while on a personal errand.

 California Court Finds Exclusivity Rule Did Not Bar A Malicious Prosecution Action Against Liberty Mutual