18-Wheeler and Contractor Negligence at Interstate Work Site: Wrongful Death of Car Driver

$4,100,000.00 Settlement

Suit Filed in Hampton County Court of Common Pleas (Co-Counsel Involved)

18-Wheeler Rear End Collision with Car at Intersection: Low Back Injuries to Car Occupant.

$1,800,000.00 Settlement

Suit Filed in U.S. District Court, Charleston Division.

Medical Malpractice Birth Injury…Shoulder Dystocia.

$300,000.00 Settlement

Suit Filed in Orangeburg County Court of Common Pleas

Atv Collision with Sink Hole on Road Shoulder Caused by Negligent Road Shoulder Maintenance by Department of Transportation: Utility Contractor Negligent in Originally Damaging Storm Water Pipes Underneath Roadway… Brachial Plexus Avulsion with Right Upper Extremity Paralysis.

$500,000.00 Settlement

Suit Filed in Charleston County Court of Common Pleas

Premise Liability/Defective Shelf Design and Construction Against Grocery Store, Laceration Tendon Injury to Lower Extremity.

$270,000.00 Verdict

Suit Filed and Tried in U.S. District Court, Charleston Division

Car-jacking of Limousine Driver/Client Injured.

$222,334.00 Verdict

Suit Filed and Tried in Charleston County Court of Common Pleas

James V. Annes, Inc., 386 S.c. 326, 688 S.e.2d 562 (2010), Rev’d On Reh’g, 390 S.c. 188, 701 S.e.2d 730 (2010)

South Carolina’s disabled workers were routinely forced to abandon rights and remedies afforded under the S.C. Workers’ Compensation Act by overt threats from the defense to not consent to life expectancy age proration (“LEAP”) language in workers’ compensation awards.

LEAP language in an award or settlement agreement in workers compensation is nothing more than a mathematical computation of a worker’s net proceeds after the payment of attorney’s fees and costs, divided by the number of weeks a worker is expected to live, per South Carolina’s actuarial table. The resulting life expectancy proration rate allows the Social Security Administration to prorate the federally mandated offset of federal benefits that occurs due to the lump sum state award, over the life expectancy of the worker; rather than having the worker suffer a sometimes 3 to 4 years offset of Social Security Disability benefits. It reconciles all state and federal disability schemes to achieve the underlying purpose of the Social Security Act, which was at its genesis, and still is, to assist disabled persons.

Unfortunately, insurance company lawyers, knowing that workers would go hungry with such an offset, began pushing workers compensation commissioners to require insurance carrier/employer consent to the language being placed in awards. Given the politics involved with workers compensation cases, a gauntlet of commissioners took the position that consent was required, which gave the carriers and employers a de facto veto power over our workers’ federal Social Security Disability benefits. After two Supreme Court hearings, we prevailed and protected all of South Carolina’s workers. McKnight Law Firm funded the entire appeal and did not charge the client for any appellate work, through two Supreme Court hearings.