Can I Recover Workers’ Comp Benefits if I Had a Heart Attack at Work?
Like many areas in the law, it depends. If the heart attack occurred during your normal work activities, usually the heart attack injury is not compensable under North Carolina workers’ compensation laws. For the injury to be compensable, the worker must show the heart attack was caused by some unusual or unexpected event and was in the course and scope of employment.
A good example would be an administrative assistant, who had a “desk job,” was on the first floor of a fifteen-story building. Due to a power outage, the elevators were temporarily not working. The worker’s supervisor told the worker to quickly go to the twelfth floor, via the stairs, to pick up some important documents. As the worker was going up the stairs she began to breath hard and over exerted herself. As the worker reached the tenth floor, she began to have chest pain and suffered a heart attack. This is a compensable act because this was not the normal routine of the administrative assistant to run up twelve flights of stairs. Her normal job was to have a sedimentary job at her desk. She suffered a heart attack due to this “unusual event” of her running up ten flights of stairs. This injury should be covered under the workers compensation laws.
What if the employer knew the administrative assistant had a preexisting heart condition? This would be irrelevant. The heart attack would still be compensable because the employer “takes the employee as they find them.”
What if a convenience store employee had a heart attack as an armed robber came into the store with a shotgun and pointed the shotgun at the clerk? This would probably be compensable injury because it is not the “normal duties” of a convenience store clerk to have a shotgun pointed at them.
What if a store clerk was checking out a customer and the clerk had a heart attack? Would this be compensable under the workers compensation laws? Probably not, because the clerk was doing his “normal and customary duties ” when he suffered the heart attack. Nothing out of the ordinary caused the clerk to have the heart attack.
The bottom line is, there must be some act or accident outside of the normal course of employment that caused the heart attack. There must be a causal connection between this act and the resulting heart attack. If you are looking for a Charlotte workers’ compensation attorney or Greensboro workers’ compensation lawyer be sure to contact us today.
Upside Down or Under Water on Your Home? Bankruptcy May Help!
With the decline in the housing market many people find they are “upside down” or “under water” on their home. In other words, do you owe more for the house than what it is worth? If that is your situation and you have two or more mortgages, you may find that Chapter 13 bankruptcy is an option you have never considered.
Let’s look at an example where Chapter 13 bankruptcy may help you:
You have a home with a fair market value of $150,000. Three years ago the house was worth $200,000.
You have a first mortgage on the home for $160,000 and a second mortgage or HELOC for $40,000. In other words, you owe more on the first mortgage than the house is worth.
You can easily make the first mortgage but the second mortgage is more than you can afford.
You know it will be several years before the house is valued at $200,000 again.
As a result, you are stuck making two or more mortgage payments on the home and it isn’t worth it.
You are contemplating a short-sale which leaves you without a home and a “ding” on your credit or you are considering walking away from the home and letting the mortgage company foreclose.
If this is your situation, you should consider a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. With the Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you may be able to “strip” or eliminate the second lien/mortgage. Within the bankruptcy, you are able to eliminate the lien on the house as long as you complete the Chapter 13 bankruptcy within the three to five years required by the bankruptcy laws. The number of years you must be in the bankruptcy will depend on your specific situation. Let’s use the example above to see how it might work for you.
Your first mortgage is $1,100 per month.
You have $10,000 in credit card debt, a $2,000 personal loan and $750 in medical bills.
You owe $40,000 on the second mortgage that may be eliminated in your Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
You meet with the bankruptcy attorney and determine that you qualify for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and it appears you are eligible to strip the second lien in the bankruptcy.
Your Chapter 13 plan payments are estimated at $1,300 – $1,500 including your first mortgage and other debts including the second mortgage.
Once the bankruptcy is filed, your attorney will file a lawsuit or adversary proceeding against the mortgage company or they may be able to simply file a motion to strip the lien. Each bankruptcy court has their own requirements, so you should speak with your bankruptcy attorney to determine what must be completed in your case.
Once this process (either adversary proceeding or motion) is completed, the bankruptcy court will issue a judgment or order that voids the second lien on the house as long as you complete and receive a discharge in your Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Once the bankruptcy is discharged and completed, three to five years after you file, you will resume payments on your first mortgage but the second mortgage and the other debts listed in your bankruptcy are eliminated and you will not be responsible for making payments on these debts in the future.
As a result, if you decide to sell your house in the future, you will only be required to pay off the first mortgage. The second mortgage is no longer a factor.
This is obviously a simplified approach, so you should seek the advice of a bankruptcy attorney to see if stripping your second or third mortgage or HELOC is an option for you. You are thinking this must be too good to be true otherwise someone would have mentioned this to you before! It really is fairly simple. This is just one way a Chapter 13 bankruptcy may assist you in keeping your home when you are upside down or under water.
Can a Creditor Call Me At My Job?
Have you ever had a creditor or debt collector call you at work? After the shock of the call wears off, you wonder “can they do that, is that legal?” The answer of whether it is legal in North Carolina depends on your specific situation.
North Carolina General Statutes, Article 2, Section 75-52 outlines what is considered harassment by a debt collector. Subsection 4 specifically addresses phone calls made by debt collectors to an individual’s place of work. There are two key component to this subsection that help determine whether calling you at work is considered legal under the North Carolina Statutes.
Did you provide your work telephone number to the creditor or debt collector at any point in time thus telling them it is okay to contact you at work?
Does the creditor or debt collector have another telephone number to contact you at during non-working hours?
If you provided the debt collector your work telephone number, you may have unintentionally given them permission to contact you at work. As a result, you want to correct that problem by telling the creditor or debt collector that the work telephone number is no longer a good number to reach you, and you are requesting they no longer contact you at that telephone number. In addition, you will need to provide another telephone number they can contact you at during non-working hours. If you do not provide the creditor or debt collector with another valid telephone number where they can contact you, they may continue to contact you at work even if you have asked them to stop calling you there. Why, because the work number is the only telephone number they have to contact you.
You can easily stop creditors or debt collectors from contacting you at work, however, you must provide them with an alternative number you can be reached during non-working hours.
