Atlanta News Says New Law Will Help Personal Injury Victims

In injury and accident news from Atlanta: Sometimes politicians do the work of the citizens that hired them. I know, hard to believe, but true! The Georgia State Senate has passed a worker’s comp bill that will include injured Georgians. Standing up to the insurance industry, the Georgia Senate passed a measure that will allow employers–whose workers’ compensation firm became insolvent last year– buy into the state’s insurance insolvency pool.
Writing for Atlanta Journal-Constitution Atlanta Business News, Péralte C. Paul reported the story posted April 21, 2010, under the headline, Georgia Senate passes worker’s comp bill to include injured Georgians.
Péralte C. Paul reports that Rep. Carl Rogers’ (R-Gainesville) bill follows last year’s collapse of Southeastern U.S. Insurance Inc., an Atlanta-based workers’ compensation insurer. As an aside should you need a Atlanta injury attorney I can suggest this firm of James Rice, Jr. a top attorney for both accident as well as various personal injury related cases.
According to Paul, the Senate version, which passed Tuesday, allows employers with less than $25 million in net assets to buy into the pool by paying $20,000 per claim. Employers with more than $25 million in net assets must pay $100,000. The House version passed last month and put the buy-in fees at $5,000 and $20,000 per claim, in that order.
The bill goes back to the Georgia House to be married with that chamber’s version and then will be submitted to Gov. Sonny Perdue to sign.
Paul also notes in his report that when Southeastern U.S. Insurance Inc. failed, some employers had injured employees who had active workers’ comp claims. Those employers became accountable for their medical bills because Southeastern U.S. Insurance Inc. wasn’t always compelled to contribute to the insolvency pool.
Paul adds that the state legislature passed had a law that required all insurers to begin contributing to the fund. However, apparently it didn’t include those insurers’ claims that were filed prior to Jan. 1, 2008, when the law went into effect.
Paul writes