Florida Injury Attorney Blawg

Doctor selection under the Defense Base Act and the Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act (LHWCA) is crucial. It can make the difference between fairness and injustice.

Through 42 U.S.C. 1651(a), the LHWCA is the substantive law for the Defense Base Act. Under the LHWCA, employers/insurance companies are required to provide injured workers with medical care. Injured workers have the right to choose one doctor. Once the selection is made, any change must come by agreement of the E/C or order of the Secretary of Labor's office. Injured workers do not want to be reliant on either alternative. Accordingly, the initial choice is key.

Money has a tendency to corrupt. Sadly, doctors are not above being influenced by insurance company money to render false opinions unfavorable to their patients. Doing otherwise jeopardizes the flow of future insurance company business. This is why we see the same doctors being selected time and again in every type of workers' compensation case, from state workers' compensation cases, to Defense Base Act cases, to LHWCA cases.

Like sexual prostitutes, whore doctors do whatever is required to please the customer. Unlike sexual prostitutes, however, the immoral acts of whore doctors harm innocent victims ... their own patients. So much for the Hippocratic Oath.

Given these harsh realities, it is especially important for injured workers to select their doctors carefully. There are many doctors of high principle who are not beholden to insurance companies. Lawyers who represent injured workers know who they are and can help in the selection process. Unfortunately, in a large percentage of cases the dye has already been cast by the time proper legal advice is sought. Most injured workers have already begun treating by the time they meet with a lawyer.

Continue reading "Doctor Selection Under the Defense Base Act (and LHWCA) - Choose Right or Lose" »

Just as the Jones Act, the Federal law which governs personal injury cases involving seamen, relies on FELA, the Federal Employers Liability Act, established in the 19th century to protect railroad workers, for it's substantive law, the Defense Base Act relies on the Longshore and Harbor Workers Act for its substance law.

42 U.S.C. 1651(a), the first clause of the Defense Base Act, states that the provisions of 33 U.S.C. 901 et seq. apply with respect to any employee of a defense contractor injured overseas in the course and scope of employment. Due to the relative underdevelopment of DBA jurisprudence, legal guidance in DBA cases often derives from LHWCA precedent.

Read our other blogs to learn the particulars of the DBA/LHWCA. It is a fascinating and complex area of the law with significant consequences for those who are severely injured and their loved ones.
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Jeffrey P. Gale, P.A. is a South Florida based law firm committed to the judicial system and to representing and obtaining justice for individuals - the poor, the injured, the forgotten, the voiceless, the defenseless and the damned, and to protecting the rights of such people from corporate and government oppression. We do not represent government, corporations or large business interests.