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Alexandria - 1, Mount Everest and the $18 Billion in profits Goliath - 0

6/10/2023

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In 2019 our client was injured when part of the assembly line she worked on fell and hit her between her hip & knee. Doctors and other medical providers are trained to start at the lower end of diagnosis and work their way up. So they usually start at Sprains, Strains, Abrasions or Contusions. Then as your problems persist, they get the tests to show much more serious problems. It become s our job, when these are found, to add them to the allowed conditions in your claim.

Now, as we are workforce working until we are much older, more and more of us are being injured with problems that pre-date our injury, whether we know about them or not. Speaking as someone whose age starts with a five, I can tell you that many of those aches and pains we get as we get older are signs of arthritis and other problems with our joints. Worse still this process actually starts for many when our ages start with Fours, Threes and even the occasional Two and even rarely a One.

But worse still our Ohio Republican Super Majority in all branches of government have made it harder for people like us who have problems that are there, whether we know it or not, before our workplace injury. In 2006 they passed Senate Bill 7. Previously if you had a preexisting problem, known or not, and the workplace injury made it worse, any increase in symptoms or need for treatment, it was cover.

As of August 2006, that became a much higher, harder standard to meet. Specifically we have to show that it was made substantially worse (without any definition in the law of what that means) and that there is at least one Objective (can not be faked, something like a test) finding that backs that. The Bureau's leadership, when testifying for this law's passage, estimated it would save Ohio's employers, read take away from Ohio's Injured Workers, about Two Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars ($250,000,000) per year.

And they were right. The analogy I use to explain this challenge is climbing Mount Everest. Now, every year, brave women & men climb that incredibly dangerous peak. But you have to have the perfect weather conditions, train hard, have the right guides, and luck and you can make it. But there is also a very beautiful but sad area on that mountain nicknamed the Rainbow Gorge. It's beautiful in that it has almost every color of the rainbow in it. Sad because that's the bodies of all of the climbers who fell to their deaths on the mountain.

Sadly, that is what happens to many claims when a pre-existing condition is found since 2006. Worse, the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation has never changed in the last 17 years, their paperwork for adding conditions to claims. So most doctors and Injured Workers don't even know what they have to do and without a great team behind them, these conditions are denied meaning the treatment you need, and the monetary benefits you deserve go unpaid.

And that's where Alex seemed headed. She was only 27 years old when the injury at work occurred but  the tests told her doctor she had a worsened problem here, but it had been made substantially worse by what happened to her at work. Sadly, because it is such a high burden to make, we lost her administrative hearings.

But there is one final appeal in our system, past the three potential administrative hearings at the Industrial Commission, a jury trial in Common Pleas Court (the trial court) in the county in which you are injured. But they are hard to win, expensive, and the employer usually has much more money than you. And since her employer made almost $18 Billion in profits last year, Alex had a tough fight ahead.

But Russ Gerney from our office gathered all of the needed evidence, guided Alex through the long discovery phase of the case and took this case to trial and Won. But the employer had the right to appeal and filed an appeal to the Sixth District Court of Appeals here in Toledo.

Well, yesterday, the three judge panel of the court ruled unanimously and across party lines, as judges often do, in Alex's favor. So, Russ and Alex reached the top of Everest. And now we can work on getting her the money and treatment help she needs.

Do you have a tough fight ahead, maybe. Do you need the help of a legal team like ours to get where you need to go, definitely. Whether you know how hard the fight ahead is, you should really talk to an attorney about it. The Bureau of Workers' Compensation, the Managed care Organization, the Employer and their Third Party Administrator all have many attorneys working to limit your claim. Call us at 419-244-7885 and we can help you climb up the road to where you need to go, whether it's a small hill, or one of the toughest mountains in the world to climb.

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ID NEEDED TO VOTE HAS CHANGED, CHECK YOURS NOW

6/8/2023

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As a result of pressure from special interests, mainly people hearing the myth of the "Big Steal" of the 2020 Election, the Ohio General Assembly has dramatically changed how elections are run in Ohio. Despite every study done in the last several decades showing that the legitimate voting rate was already at 99.999999%, they have made it harder to vote in Ohio.

Gone are the days of any form of alternative Identification being valid once we at the Board of Elections have confirmed you are a citizen and should be allowed to vote. Instead you must present proper ID to vote in person at the Early Vote Center or your polling place on Election Day.

To vote in August, voters will need one of these types of valid photo identification:

Ohio driver's license
State of Ohio ID card
Interim ID form issued by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles
A U.S. passport
A U.S. passport card
U.S. military ID card
Ohio National Guard ID card
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ID card

And all photo IDs must have the following:
An expiration date that has not passed
A photograph of the voter
The voter’s name, which must substantially conform to the voter’s name as it appears in the poll list or in the poll book

That's why I have been working with groups like the Toledo Chapter of NAACP, Ohio Unity coalition, Greater Northwest Ohio Central Labor Council, Jobs With Justice and the Toledo Lucas County Public Library to get the word out and put on events where people can get assistance to update or obtain their new photo ID

If you do not have a Ohio State Issued ID or Ohio Driver's License, it's free to get a State Issued ID. Below is a convenient card with what you'll need and how to do it.

Please share this information with everyone you can. No one should lose their right to vote due to unnecessary law. And please get out and VOTE, the Democracy you save may be your own.

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WE'RE BACK, AND WE ALL HAVE WORK TO DO

5/31/2023

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Thanks to our creative and technology partners at Toledo based Ape Forge. our page is back and better than ever. We hope that this page will not be just be a place to promote our firm and what we do, but a resource for workers who are injured or become disabled. For those who might not have a voice but whose voice we can become. But right now, we have a real problem in our state.

Democracy is really on the line right now. For many reasons I won't go on too much about here, our system where fights are fought with ideas and words not guns & bombs, and majority rule, while protecting minority opinions is in serious trouble. You can see it locally, statewide and across the nation. Election fixing like terminally flawed campaign finance laws and gerrymandering that allows politicians to pick their voters, rather than vice versa as it should be, have resulted in a crumbling of democracy. Elections with no contest due to unwinnable districts or worse not even an opponent are not healthy. Low turnout, due to voter apathy, and the effect of negative campaigns that win elections. And now add to that new voting laws that make it harder to vote, despite already having safe and secure elections. Well it presents a real opportunity for power grabs.

One of the worst is on display right now in our state. Due to the outcomes of the 2019 Elections, Ohio Republicans had total control of Congressional and Ohio General Assembly Districts. And despite the fact that Republican Majority Ohio Supreme Court found these districts to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered , they had to allow the 2022 Election to happen with them. So, in a state that votes about 51-55% Republican and therefore 45-49% Democratic, we have a General Assembly that is about 70% Republican. And they are seizing their chance to try to make that permanent.

So on August 8th, just months after ending August Special Elections for everyone else, they have created an August 8th Special Election for just themselves. This election is as yet unfunded by them, and will put extreme stress on Ohio's Boards of Elections, some of whom, including Lucas County's have the possibility of a September municipal primary or primaries to deal with.

Why? Well, they want to make it harder for "We The People" of Ohio to stop them when they give special interests what they bought. And this effort is not exception, it is being funded by out of state special interest groups. And while the first thing they want to stop is the possibility in November that women may have their right to choose written into the Ohio Constitution, that's not the end of it. They are coming after workers' collective bargaining rights, pay protections, and given past history workers' compensation is on the menu. In the 1990's I was one of the leaders in our area who helped defeat an attempt to gut our workers' compensation rights. And we are fairly that a repeat is dratted and ready to go.

So, We need You. First, if you are not sure your voter registration is current, you need to check it before every election's voter registration deadline (https://voterlookup.ohiosos.gov/voterlookup.aspx lets you check with the Ohio Secretary of State's office in all counties). For this election that deadline is July 10th. You should be registered where you live and/or intend to return to. Update that please.

Second, you will need photo ID to voter in person whether early or on Election Day. There no more forms of alternative ID allowed. So make sure your license or state issued ID is current. It takes time to get a new one, so don't delay on that.

Third, if you can, please contact your local Board of Elections and consider working for this election. We need people of all ages, that includes 16 and up and political affiliations. There are jobs that take a few hours to all of election day and beyond. ALL ARE PAID. ALL INCUDE PAID TRAINING. And you can actually sign up online in Lucas County and kill two birds with one stone. Go to https://www.lucascountyohiovotes.gov/voter-information and you can confirm your vote registration, where your polling place, and on the right hand side of the page where you do that, you can click a link and sign up to be poll worker for this election, and hopefully those in the future too.

Finally, make sure you get everyone you know, including yourself, out to vote. NO on State Issue One. Again this will make it harder for us to over rule the one party, special interest run, Ohio General Assembly.

Kurt

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Alexandria - 1, Mount Everest and the $18 Billion in profits Goliath - 0

ID NEEDED TO VOTE HAS CHANGED, CHECK YOURS NOW

WE'RE BACK, AND WE ALL HAVE WORK TO DO

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