In this case, a woman with Stage 4 breast cancer tried to collect disability insurance. But Cigna repeatedly denied Susan Kristoff's claim for short-term disability.

Cigna said she had not proven a disability. Sick and with bills piled up, Kristoff says she considered something drastic.

"If I wasn't going to be getting better, I didn't want to sink the rest of my family, so I spent two days in bed crying and thinking about suicide," she said.

Instead Kristoff hired an attorney. In short order, Cigna reversed course and paid her short-term benefits. Then with her lawyer's help, she applied for the much more important long-term help.

When asked about deny-and-delay, an insurance industry spokeswoman skirted the issue.

"I think our community has every incentive to continue to get better and that's what we strive for," Susan Pisano, a representative of the insurance company trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, said.

[Reporter] Chris Cuomo asked Pisano, "What is the incentive for the insurance company to do things quickly when there is no penalty for doing things slowly?"

"Well, you set up punitive damages as the sort of holy grail," Pisano replied.

Cuomo pointed out that punitive damages were set up to encourage companies not to delay coverage, knowing that there could be stiff financial penalties down the road.

"And I think that the people who wrote the law said they weren't gonna do that because they wanted to be encouraging employers to offer these benefits and they did not want to build in a costly and protracted, you know, court situation," responded Pisano.

Deuterman this week received an Impact Pro Bono Award from the N.C. Bar Association and Business Leader Media in recognition of the work he did on behalf of the family of Jennifer Nielsen, who was murdered last year while delivering newspapers.

Jennifer was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. The Deuterman Law Group stepped in to help her family receive a death benefit under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act.

For more about the case, see the previous blog about the Jennifer Nielsen murder.

The Impact Pro Bono Awards recognize attorneys whose pro bono work had the biggest impact in the communities in which they live and work. The winners will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Business Leader magazine.

The awards tie into the 4All campaign, an initiative by the N.C. Bar Association to provide legal representation for all North Carolina residents, especially those who cannot afford it.

Derived from the last line of the Pledge of Allegiance, “With Liberty and Justice for All,” 4ALL will address the unmet legal needs of the poor by:

• Increasing financial support for Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc. (LANC) through the
NCBA Foundation Endowment’s new Legal Aid Fund.
• Strengthening the North Carolina legal community’s commitment to pro bono legal service by holding a statewide service day
• Persuading state and federal legislators to give greater financial support to LANC, other legal services organizations and legal aid attorneys.
• Promoting public awareness of the growing number of North Carolina citizens living below the poverty level.

Tomorrow on the blog we’ll have more information on 4All and what we can all do to ensure that no one in our state is denied justice.

Jennifer, a young mother of two who was eight months pregnant with her third child, was murdered while delivering newspapers for in Raleigh. Her killer remains at large.

The deaths of Jennifer and her unborn son, Ethen, devastated their family. Then came a second shock. Jennifer’s employer decreed that she was an independent contractor, not an employee, and refused to pay a death benefit under the state’s workers’ compensation law.

Jennifer’s grieving husband, Tim, contacted Dan Deuterman of the Deuterman Law Group, and asked for his help in fighting this decision. Tim knew that no amount of money would ever replace Jennifer, but he was concerned for the future of their children.

Touched by Tim’s grief and determined to deliver some kind of justice for Jennifer, the Deuterman Law Group accepted the case. Dan Deuterman, a UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law Graduate who has a deep commitment to community service and pro bono work, agreed to work on the Nielsens’ behalf for free.

In the case of Jennifer Nielsen, the legal issue at stake was whether she was an employee of the newspaper or an independent contractor. As an employee, Jennifer would be entitled to benefits under the N.C. Workers’ Compensation Act. But if she were an independent contractor, then the Act would not apply.

In 2005, the N.C. Workers’ Compensation Act was changed to presumably exclude newspaper carriers as eligible employees. Many states have grappled with the issue of whether newspaper carriers are independent contractors or employees. North Carolina presumes a newspaper carrier to be an independent contractor, but it is possible to prove that a newspaper carrier is an employee eligible for workers’ compensation benefits.

The Deuterman Law Group prepared to argue the Nielsen family’s case before the N.C. Industrial Commission. Before that became necessary, Dan Deuterman was able to negotiate a settlement with Jennifer’s employer.

The money the family received from that settlement could never replace Jennifer or Ethen or ease the pain of their deaths. But thanks to the pro bono work of the Deuterman Law Group, Jennifer’s young children will be provided for, as their mother always intended.

Dan Deuterman and the entire staff at the Deuterman Law Group are active community supporters and volunteers. The firm encourages its attorneys to do pro bono work and to volunteer their time and legal expertise whenever necessary.

Dan Deuterman and his wife, Dawne, take that commitment to heart and give graciously of their time and money to many organizations.

Kids' Chance of North Carolina is an organization dedicated to making sure that children of workers who have been seriously injured or killed on the job receive an education.

In addition to donating money to the scholarship program, Dan and his staff are actively searching for scholarship applicants and using their resources and influence to spread the word about this worthy cause.

Every year, Kids' Chance gives out scholarships to help these children continue their education at a four-year college, community college or vocational school.

In 2006, Dan and his wife endowed The Daniel Lyndon and Dawne Talbert Deuterman Scholarship to benefit students attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

The scholarship is awarded annually to a student ranked in the top third of his or her college class, who demonstrates financial need and leadership abilities through college involvement and extracurricular activities. 

Pam, who has tremendous experience in the field, will be handling workers' comp cases for the law firm.

Please read on to learn more about Pam and her commitment to injured workers and preserving their rights.

A seasoned litigator and a certified mediator, Pam is a great addition to the Deuterman Law Group.

Foster, whose experience also includes personal injury, medical malpractice and Social Security disability cases, is dedicated to protecting the rights of injured workers. She views her work as a community service, extending justice to people who couldn’t afford to hire an attorney except on a contingency basis.

The Deuterman Law Group in downtown Greensboro is one of the foremost workers’ compensation law firms in North Carolina. It is one of only a few law firms in the state whose workers’ compensation attorneys are all board certified specialists. Founding attorney Daniel L. Deuterman and Joel W. Davis also have earned this distinction.

In addition to representing injured workers, the Deuterman Law Group handles Social Security Disability and personal injury cases.

A North Carolina native, Foster graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish. She earned her juris doctorate degree in 1994 from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Foster was licensed to practice law in North Carolina in 1994. In 2002, the North Carolina Board of Legal Specialization recognized her as a board certified specialist in workers’ compensation law. This designation is a testament to Foster’s expertise, her performance as an attorney and her reputation in the legal community.

Only a few attorneys in the state have earned this prestigious designation. To become certified legal specialists, attorneys must have practiced a minimum of five years, undergo peer review by other attorneys and judges, participate in continuing legal education in the subject matter and pass a board exam given by the Board of Legal Specialization.

“I have known Pam Foster for many years, and I’m very pleased that she has joined the Deuterman Law Group,” Deuterman said. “Pam knows the law, and she understands how the workers’ compensation system in North Carolina works. Through her years of practice, she has earned the respect of her peers in the State Bar because of her legal knowledge and skill and her advocacy on behalf of her clients.”

Foster, who previously had her own firm in High Point, has represented a wide range of clients, including those in the furniture industry, trucking and nursing. She has practiced throughout the Triad and the state, representing clients from High Point, Randolph County, Davidson County, Forsyth County, Rowan County and Surry County.

Foster has a deep appreciation for the hardworking people because she has been surrounded by them her entire life. She and her four sisters were raised in Chapel Hill, where their single mother worked as a bookkeeper for the family-owned Fowlers Food Store.

“Everybody in the family did a little work. When I learned to count, I assisted in doing inventory, which meant going to the grocery store at 4:30 in the morning and counting cans on the shelves while the older sisters and cousins would write down the numbers,” Foster said. “Growing up in the grocery store business provided the foundation for what I know about hard work and being a part of the working class.”

After college but before law school, Foster worked in the graduate library at UNC. It was that experience, specifically her exposure to numerous legal tomes, which sparked Foster’s interest in law. A volunteer job teaching English as a Second Language at Durham Technical Community College further cemented her desire to become an attorney.

“In those classes, I became acquainted with people from various nationalities who were struggling with one legal issue or another,” she said. “I learned a lot about the impact that our laws have on people who are not citizens.”

Prior to focusing on workers’ compensation cases, Foster was in general practice with Hunter Large & Sherrill in her hometown of Sylva, N.C. She also worked as an attorney for the Law Offices of Grover McCain in Chapel Hill, where she clerked during law school.

Foster is a member of North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers and the N.C. Bar Association. She is also a certified Superior Court mediator.

She lives in Greensboro with her husband and two children.

"A Freedom of Information Act request, federal reports and interviews showed the Carolinas had about 48,500 pending disability cases, including about 8,700 in the Charlotte area. Waits at Charlotte's Disability and Adjudication and Hearing Office ranked among the worst -- 125 out of 141 offices in the nation.

The reason: Charlotte administrative law judges, on average, decided 375 cases in 2006. The Social Security Administration asks judges to make 500 to 600 decisions a year.

Though officials tried to remove reporters from the hearing office, the Observer spent more than 40 hours monitoring workers. At any given time, half of the six courtrooms were not in use.

Judges blamed the problems on staffing. The Social Security Administration has since announced it is hiring more judges to reduce delays. "

But hiring more judges isn't the solution for ending the Social Security disability backlog. As Paul M. Goodson, a colleague who practices in Charlotte, pointed out, the judges can't hear more cases unless the Social Security Administration also hires more staff to assist them.

The inefficiency runs through the entire Social Security system. The blame can't be laid solely at the feet of the judges.

The archive of the show is available online. You can hear about how they conducted their investigation and the lax workplace safety measures at House of Raeford Farms plants throughout the Carolinas.

You can read the full series, The Creulest Cuts, online at the Observer Web site.

Reporters spent 22 months investigating the poultry industry in North Carolina and South Carolina, interviewing more than 200 workers and reviewing thousands of documents.  They found that between 80 percent  to 90 percent of the workforce at some plants is Latino and that is by  design. As one plant employment superviser told a reporter, she was encouraged to hire Latinos because they are likely to complain and report their injuries.

House of Raeford is clearly violating the siprit of the state's workers' compensation laws.

"The company has compiled misleading injury reports and has defied regulators as it satisfies a growing appetite for America's most popular meat. And employees say the company has ignored, intimidated or fired workers who were hurt on the job. "

Among the findings of the Charlotte Observer series, called the Cruelest Cuts:

• House of Raeford's 800-worker plant in West Columbia, S.C., reported no musculoskeletal disorders over four years. Experts say that's inconceivable. MSDs, including carpal tunnel syndrome, are the most common work-related injuries afflicting poultry workers.

• Its Greenville, S.C., plant has boasted of a five-year safety streak with no lost-time accidents. But the plant kept that streak alive by bringing injured employees back to the factory hours after surgery.

• The company has broken the law by failing to record injuries on government safety logs, a top OSHA official says.

• At four of the company's largest Carolinas plants, company first-aid attendants and supervisors have dismissed some workers' requests to see a doctor -- even when they complained of debilitating pain.

Our journalists found evidence that House of Raeford has failed to report serious injuries, including broken bones and carpal tunnel syndrome. They discovered that plant officials often dismissed workers' requests for medical care that would cost the company money.

22 months, interviewed more than 200 poultry workers, many of them Latinos.

Author Lisa Cullen tells those stories in her book, "A Job to Die For: Why So Many Americans Are Killed, Injured Or Made Ill At Work And What To Do About It ."

Each year, the workplace extends into nearby communities to claim the lives of 218 bystanders and injure another 68,000.

 7.1 percent of workers are injured or made ill on the job. Every year.

The cost of this carnage and disease tops $155.5 billion annually; five times the cost of AIDS, three times the costs for Alzheimer's, and nearly as much as cancer.

The book is a great reminder of what someone who is hurt at work goes through.

I encourage you to pick up a copy, and you may also want to listen in on an interview Cullen gave on Labor Day about workplace injuries.

The President's FY 2009 budget once again calls for recission of the Crime Victims Fund.... this year they want to remove $2 billion.

The requested FY 2009 VOCA cap would remain at $590 million.

The next time someone tells you they think most people who are collecting workers' compensation are cheating the system, direct them to this video. It might not be as dramatic as a report by John Stossel, but at least it's accurate.

Click here to see the video on workers' compensation fraud.

I know that's simply not true. The overwhelming majority of people who apply for workers' compensation benefits are injured and unable to work because of those injuries. But the media and the insurance companies have done a great job conducting smear campaigns that cast injured workers in a bad light. They've subverted the facts with anecdotes and a few damning videos and created the impression that workers' compensation fraud by employees is rampant. But in reality, only about 1 percent of all workers' compensatioin claims are found to be fraudulent.

However, fraud by employers and insurers is much more prevalent and costs billions of dollars annually. There's a human cost, too. Injured workers who are the victims of workers' compensation fraud often are unable to collect benefits that would make their lives easier and help them get the treatment they need.

Leonard Jernigan Jr., a fellow workers' comp attorney in North Carolna and the chairman of the fraud task force for the Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group (WILG) has an interesting article in Workers First Watch about the prevalence -- and cost -- of employer and insurance fraud. In it, he provides the straight scoop on workers' compensation fraud.

In Florida, one of the more aggressive states in attacking fraud, out of 54,854 claims filed in 2005 there were 178 convictions (and 130 were against employers).

In Kansas, out of 66,469 workers’ compensation claims filed in 2006, there were 798 fraud complaints reported and 718 were against employers.

In Rhode Island, out of 6,971 injuries filed in 2005, there were 5,219 fraud claims reported and 5,174 involved employers (primarily from late filing or noncompliance).

In Tennessee, a penalty program was initiated in 2004 as part of the Workers’ Compensation Reform Act. Since that time the program has collected nearly $300,000 from carriers and employers.

In New York, a 2007 report by the Fiscal Policy Institute concluded that 25-30 % of all companies in New York are not purchasing workers’ compensation insurance and that non-compliance (failure to buy required insurance) was a growing problem in New York, which in turn increased premiums and shifted the cost of medical care to injured workers, taxpayers and other employers. It also concluded that between $500 million and $1billion was being lost to the system annually.

The News & Record ran a story, too, about these victims fund cuts.

A subscription is required to view Wall Street Journal articles online, but I'm posting the complete article here.

By GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON -- In drafting the government's 2008 budget, Congress cut back on funding for a Justice Department program to aid crime victims, capping it at $590 million, $35 million less than last year. 

But because the money for the Crime Victims Fund program doesn't come from taxpayer dollars, restricting it doesn't generate actual savings. 

Some lawmakers say the cut was made just to give the appearance of fiscal restraint -- at the expense of the people who seek help at victim-support centers. 

Including the numbers in the omnibus bill is "smoke and mirrors," charges Republican Rep. Ted Poe of Texas. "The number is lower in the budget, so the budget shows a saving, but that's a farce." 

The cut has sparked a scramble among some victims-rights groups to get the funds reinstated, although most concede that little can be done until the next budget is completed in about a year. Until then, the losers from this move will likely be victim-support programs, especially those at the local level. 

The fund was set up by Congress in 1984 as part of the Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA. Its revenue comes from fines, forfeitures and fees levied against federal criminal offenders. The 4,400 local agencies and groups that the fund supports provide such things as shelters for domestic-violence victims to counseling services for victims of child abuse. 

Until 2000, the amount of funds distributed depended on collections from the previous year. In 1999, three huge criminal settlements, including $500 million paid by Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., pushed the fund to $985 million for the year. That led Congress to cap annual spending and reserve any excess to supplement the fund in leaner years. 

Mr. Poe estimates there is currently about $1.7 billion in the fund. He has introduced a bill that would prohibit Congress from including the fund as part of the federal budget. 

State programs are last on the list of those receiving money from the fund, after other areas deemed more critical, such as victim-assistance staff at FBI offices. Even before the current cap reduction, money for state grants had been dropping, from $395.9 million in 2006 to $370.6 million in 2007. With the lowering of the cap and increased costs in other programs, state grants will drop to $328.5 million this year. 

"The impact will vary from state to state and program to program, but at some point this will take its toll," says Steve Derene, executive director of the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators. "Some programs will close, and some will turn victims away." 

In Iowa, for example, the state-local grants will drop to $3.5 million, compared with $3.9 million in 2007, and will result in a 10% to 15% cut in each grant, according to an analysis done by Marti Anderson, director of the state's Crime Victim Assistance Division, and released by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. In addition, some staff who run victims' programs will be cut, as will the number of counseling sessions received by rape and domestic-violence victims, according to the analysis. 

Congress's recent move follows several attempts in previous years by Bush administration budget writers to divert surplus funds above the cap into the Treasury Department's general fund, opening the way for the money to be used for programs other than victims' services. Members of Congress have rejected those attempts. 

In its initial budget request for 2008, the Bush administration asked for $625 million. Members in the House suggested increasing the cap to $635 million. Advocates surmise that when various committees eventually began imposing across-the-board cuts, they didn't exclude the Victims Fund, even though it isn't part of the government's general-revenue pool. 

"I don't know whether there's anything that can be done prior to the next budget," says Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona. He is concerned that domestic-violence shelters and rape crisis centers will be closed, along with crime-victim legal clinics, which provide free services. "It's taken a long time to get those started. They will be among the first cuts," he says. 

Some activists say they will push Congress to revisit the cap when they return this month, but Mr. Derene agrees with Sen. Kyl that it is too late for 2008. He says lobbying efforts are likely to focus on 2009 spending. 

"From what I hear, there could be a supplemental appropriations bill, but that wouldn't happen until some time in the spring, which would be too late for state assistance programs," Mr. Derene says. 

 Write to Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com 

A recent column from the Muskogee Phoenix newspaper clears up some confusion regarding an expedited process that lets disabled veterans apply for Social Security disability benefits.

Dan Neer, a 38-year-old North Dakota man who injured his back moving furniture learned this the hard way: It took him more than two years from his first application to get Social Security disability benefits.

Lawmakers are also starting to notice the backlog. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., has asked President Bush and the inspector general's office to review the process of applying for disability.

"There seems to be something wrong if two-thirds on appeal are found disabled," Dorgan said.

"We must stop the inexcusable delay in getting Social Security benefits to people with disabilities.

Hundreds of thousands of people who have filed legitimate disability claims with the Social Security Administration have been forced to wait, on average, an astonishing 520 days for a hearing on their claims. Many have waited as long as three years, losing their homes in the process."

Amen. Read on for Ervin's thought-provoking article about the Social Security backlog.