[CPEO-MEF] FW: Help for sick workers

["Laura Olah" <cswab@merr.com>]

Please post and forward.
Laura

> Gerlach fights for illness victims
>
> Local attorney Franklin Gerlach stands in front of some of the many case
> files in his office he has represented over the years.
> By FRANK LEWIS
> PDT Staff Writer
> When people find out they are suffering from cancer or other illnesses
> caused by exposure to toxic substances on the job, they look for an
> advocate to help them get the compensation they feel they deserve.
>
> They have found an advocate in Portsmouth attorney Franklin T. Gerlach.
>
> Gerlach has a room in his office building devoted to these cases with
> literally hundreds of file folders, dealing with the Energy Employees
> Occupational Illness Compensation Program.
>
> The program, divided into Parts B and E, provide a set amount of
> compensation.
>
> "Part B allows compensation of up to $150,000 for cancer, chronic 
> Beryllium
> disease or chronic siliosis," Gerlach said. "Part E provides up to 
> $250,000
> for illnesses caused by exposure to any toxic substance, which includes
> radiation."
>
> Gerlach said there are four pages of toxic substances employees were
> exposed to at Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant, along with uranium and
> radiation, and arsenic, which he said the company first had denied was
> present at the facility.
>
> "The materials from Paducah (Ky.) introduced arsenic to make the 
> enrichment
> greater, but they never told the employees about this," he said. "And 
> every
> time there would be a leak or a seal would break all of this gas would get
> out that had arsenic in it."
>
> Gerlach said the plant now admits skin and other cancers were caused by 
> the
> presence of arsenic, and have put the compensation program together.
>
> He also talked about a substance called "a secret process gas," which if
> inhaled or introduced to a person's skin causes, "great difficulty."
>
> Gerlach has or is presently working on about 250 cases, and he says the
> client list grows each week. To date, he said he has collected more than 
> $5
> million in compensation for those clients.
>
> So, what is the role of the attorney in the process of obtaining
> compensation?
>
> "A person who needs your services names you their authorized
> representative," Gerlach said. "This gives you the opportunity to look at
> their files, to contact the Department of Labor, work on their claim; ask
> for their records and make contacts as such."
>
> He said one of the reasons most attorneys do not handle these cases is the
> fee scale set by the federal government.
>
> "It's either 2 percent or 10 percent," Gerlach said. "Two percent is if
> they came in and you processed their claim without having to go through 
> any
> appeal procedures. If you have to object to one of their decisions and go
> through an appeal procedure, then it's 10 percent. This does not include
> going to court or the Department of Labor. That's a whole separate matter.
> When they set restrictions on attorney fees like that, they are just 
> trying
> to discourage the people from having attorneys."
>
> He said it is sometimes "like a game" in that the attorney has to prove 
> the
> person actually worked at the facility in question, including Portsmouth
> Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
>
> "A lot of the contractors here were working at building the plant and
> making repairs and such. You have to prove that particular contractor you
> worked for actually had a contract with the Department of Energy or one of
> its subcontractors," Gerlach said. "Then you have to prove you were
> actually there. That's the most difficult thing to do sometimes, 
> especially
> if the people have aged. A lot of the people they worked with are 
> deceased."
>
> He said the client in question may have worked in a crew of five, and
> someone is the only one who has survived, there is no one to back up their
> claim they worked at that site.
>
> Gerlach said getting records and creating a claim is much like detective
> work. Once it is established the client worked at the plant, the next step
> is proving what he or she was exposed to.
>
> "This program covers over 300 facilities throughout the United States," he
> said. "I have clients all the way over to places like the state of
> Washington, Florida, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia ?
> those are a few that I can remember."
>
> Gerlach said the program is universal and not limited to the Portsmouth
> plant. He said it is any place that was working on the atomic bomb.
>
> He said impairment ratings are important when it comes to filing claims 
> for
> compensation for injured workers. As a rule of thumb, he said for every 1
> percent a person is impaired, they are awarded $2,500.
>
> In dealing many times with terminal clients, Gerlach from time to time has
> had those clients die while in the process of obtaining the compensation.
>
> "I was able to get a person a rating of 99 percent. He was living, but in
> the final stages of his life, but before the check could get here he died.
> So that cancels it out. No payment is made," he said. "If there is a widow
> or a child under the age of 18 at the time of the person's death, who was
> going to school, or if they are a dependent child with psychological or
> physical reasons they depended on the person who died, they could then 
> step
> into the compensation."
>
> Gerlach said the exception is Part B, in which the compensation goes down
> through the children, and to brothers and sisters, and other relatives, 
> but
> the $250,000 payment requires those direct relationships.
>
> The widow is entitled to $125,000 if she can prove the exposure caused the
> death.
>
> If there is no one in any of those categories, the Department of Labor is
> not obligated to pay any compensation.
>
> Gerlach said the key to all claims is the ability to prove the cancer or
> other chronic disease was a direct result of exposure to chemicals.
>
> Gerlach was asked if he is continuing to take on new clients attempting to
> receive their compensation.
>
> "Yes. I have a Web site, atomiclawyer.com, and I try to put information on
> there that people can use called links with various things that I have
> found," he said. "Part of my study is to look up the government Web sites,
> and various other information sources that will be of help to you. I went
> to a seminar on how you use the impairment rating so I can understand what
> they are doing. I like it. I have momentum now and I want to stick with 
> it."
>
> So why take cases with low fees, and those fees only available if the case
> is won?
>
> "I have always had a sense of service to mankind, and no matter how long I
> have been in this business, that does not change," Gerlach said.
>
>
>
>
> 


_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org