June 5th, 2020 Juan Becerra lost his life while building the SoFi stadium in Los Angeles. Meant to house the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers along with being the future spot for the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff Championship, World Cup, and Olympics, this venue now holds a different meaning for those who knew Juan Becerra.
Continue reading “Guerra LLP to Represent Man Who Was Helping Build SoFi Stadium”
At least a half-million Texas workers have no occupational insurance coverage, either from workers’ compensation or from a private equivalent, Texas Department of Insurance officials said Tuesday.
Texas is the only state in the country where the decision to carry workers’ compensation insurance or a private equivalent is voluntary for companies of any size. All other states mandate occupational insurance coverage.
In Texas, if an employer subscribes to an approved workers’ compensation policy, that serves as a bar to a personal injury lawsuit. Workers’ comp will be the injured party’s only remedy against their employer. If the worker dies, the bar against suit does not remain intact in a wrongful death claim.
People who suffer workplace accidents can sue employers without workers’ compensation insurance directly. Unfortunately, the businesses that forego paying for workers’ comp often have few assets, so there is no one to sue and no money to recover. Workers’ compensation nonsubscriber claims are a mixed bag – you won’t know what policy (if any) or what assets a potential defendant has without suing them, which costs an already injured party money.
Only a tiny percentage of Texas employers comply with requirements to notify the state about their workplace coverage or lack thereof. In 2012, 81 percent of Texas employees were covered by workers’ compensation insurance. Of the uninsured, about 70 percent have some type of private occupational insurance (of varying quality and benefits).
State legislators are discussing proposals to make workers’ compensation coverage mandatory for at least danger-prone industries such as construction.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board released the preliminary findings of its investigation at a news conference this week, just a few days after the anniversary of the West fertilizer plant explosion. Federal investigators determined that a lack of oversight and regulations at the local, state, and federal levels contributed to the deadly fertilizer plant explosion that devastated a rural Texas town last year.
The plant explosion was one of the worst industrial accidents in Texas history.
Officials focused in on how the West Fertilizer Company handled the ammonium nitrate that set off the explosion and the corresponding lack of regulatory oversight. Flammable white pellets of ammonium nitrate were stored in a wooden warehouse in wooden containers, inside of a building without a sprinkler system, which scarily complies with our existing state and federal safety standards.
Ammonium nitrate is stored at over 1,300 American facilities, but there are no restrictions preventing such plants from being located near residential areas. The West, Texas explosion damaged hundreds of the town’s 700 homes.
While no other chemical has caused more widespread harm to the public in preventable accidents than ammonium nitrate, it is not classified as an explosive in the United States.
The explosion at the plant in West killed 14 people, 10 of them firefighters and emergency responders, and at least two others were local volunteers. The death toll constituted the largest number of firefighters to die in the line of duty in Texas at a single episode in nearly 70 years.
The West explosion also wounded more than 200 people and destroyed or damaged a significant portion of local property. One year after April 17, 2013, West continues to rebuild.
