As a small business owner, you probably pride yourself on being agile and able to respond quickly to market and customer needs at a moment’s notice. You have low overhead and not a lot of employees. You know your business inside and out and can plan for future downturns, market upheavals, and slow sales periods.But no matter how much knowledge you have or planning you complete, there is one thing that you can’t predict with pinpoint accuracy: Workplace injuries and accidents. According to a 2016 survey of more than 1000 small business owners, released by Insureon, 11% of them reported a workplace injury at their business, resulting in a need to cover medical bills and missed wages for that injured employee.While prevention is the best way to reduce the risk of workplace injury, it...

On April 9, 2017, the New York State Senate passed workers compensation reform as part of a hard-fought battle over the state budget. Although the impact of these changes is still being discussed, here is what we know so far. These changes:

• Create an expedited hearing process
• Limit the timeframe for employees to claim temporary benefits to 2.5 years, unless they can prove that they require more time to heal
• Lower the threshold to receive permanent benefits to allow more workers to qualify for them.
• Update the prescription drug formula to include more generic medications
• Create new medical impairment guidelines that updates the amounts that employees can get for an injury
• Add provisions to provide workers compensation coverage for ride share drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft who are injured on the job

The Workers’ Compensation Board will...

Robert Golan, PC of Golan & Masiakos, LLP has won multiple, recent, rulings favorable to his clients. Mr. Golan, persuaded the appeal panel to overturn a lower court judge's decision that the client was 92% disabled, and agree that the client is 100% permanently and totally disabled–for life. This was crucial to the client because only injured workers with a 100% permanent disability are guaranteed lifetime benefits. If the 92% ruling stood, this would have ended her benefits after 9 years.An insurance company appealed a lower court judge’s opinion that his client lost 30% of the use of his arm, permanently, and argued that it was only 10%. Mr. Golan prevented this appeal by providing doctors to confirm that the client did indeed lose 30% use of the arm permanently, and the appeal panel agreed, affirming the lower court judge's opinion.Mr. Golan also got another client's monetary benefits reinstated when...