Latest news with #HouseBill66
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Mexico incentivizes attorneys, doctors to take on workplace injury cases
A workers' compensation lawyer and bill expert told lawmakers there is a shortage of doctors in New Mexico who want to treat injured workers in part because they 'are not paid commensurate with doctors who do private insurance or are paid in other ways to treat workers.' (Photo via Getty Images) Starting on June 20, a new state law may help workers in New Mexico who are hurt on the job have an easier time finding a lawyer to handle their workers' compensation claims. State law previously capped the fees an attorney could collect for representing a worker making an accidental injury claim at $22,500. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on March 21 signed into law House Bill 66, which raised the cap on attorney's fees in workers' compensation cases to $30,000, and will raise it again to $32,000 in 2027, and then $34,000 in 2029. Ben Sherman, a workers' compensation attorney and an expert witness on HB66, told the House Labor, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Jan. 28 that many workers don't have attorneys and litigate their cases on their own. Sherman said there is a 'huge shortage' of lawyers practicing workers' compensation in New Mexico, especially in rural areas. 'It can be almost impossible — if you're not in Albuquerque or Santa Fe — to find an attorney to represent you if you're injured on the job,' he said. The new law also allows insurance companies to advance a greater share of the injured worker's legal costs for discovery, which is the process of gathering evidence in a case and could include testimony from the doctor who treated the injured worker. Previously, the law capped this advance at $3,000. Workers only get the money back if they win, Sherman said. HB66 increased the discovery cost advances to $3,500 and will raise it again to $4,000 in 2027, and then $4,500 in 2029. Workers' Compensation Administration rules allow doctors and other health care providers to charge up to $400 for the first hour of being deposed; up to $360 per hour for the second and subsequent hours; up to $200 per hour for the first hour of preparing to be deposed and up to $120 per hour for the second hour of preparation and subsequent hours. Sherman told the committee there is a shortage of doctors in New Mexico who want to treat injured workers in part because they 'are not paid commensurate with doctors who do private insurance or are paid in other ways to treat workers.' He said some pending rules from the WCA would increase how much doctors can charge for their time preparing for and participating in depositions. Stephanie Welch, workers' rights director with the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, told the committee that her organization supported the bill because workers' compensation offers a vital safety net that protects workers from the economic hardships created by medical bills and lost wages after they experience a workplace injury. Welch said many workers who suffer workplace injuries, and who paid into the workers' compensation system, never obtain the benefits in part because of the lack of incentive for private attorneys to take their cases. 'This bill helps level the playing field between workers and employers, and offsets some of the advantage that employers often have because they have more financial resources,' Welch said. 'This bill is good for New Mexico's workers and ensures a more equitable workers compensation system.' Lawmakers in 2023 asked the state Workers' Compensation Administration to create a task force to study attorney's fee caps. Rep. Pamelya Herndon (D-Albuquerque) sponsored HB66 and the 2023 memorial that created the task force. Source NM left a voicemail for Herndon on Thursday seeking comment on the bill's enactment but had not heard back as of publication time. Sherman, a member of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association and of the task force, told the committee that lawmakers last set the attorney fee cap at $22,500 in 2013. He said if the cap had followed inflation, it would be $32,750 today. The new law also directs the Advisory Council on Workers' Compensation and Occupational Disease Disablement to review the caps and make recommendations to the Legislature in 2029. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill reduces early-voting window
HIGH POINT — A bill introduced recently in the N.C. General Assembly could dramatically change early voting as the practice marks its 25th anniversary this year. House Bill 66 would reduce the amount of time for in-person early voting statewide by essentially a week and a half, from up to 17 days to only six days. Early voting now starts on the third Thursday of the month before Election Day but according to this bill would begin on the second Monday before Election Day, which would eliminate all early voting on Sundays. 'Currently, North Carolina is in the broad middle of states in how many days it provides for early voting,' said John Dinan, a professor of political science at Wake Forest University. 'But this bill would leave North Carolina with one of the shorter early voting periods of the states that allow in-person early voting.' Supporters of the legislation say it would save money for the state and counties that administer elections while still providing time to vote early. Detractors say that shortening early voting will make it more inconvenient for North Carolinians and could discourage many people from casting a ballot. Early voting has steadily grown in popularity since it was introduced during North Carolina's general election in 2000. For last year's presidential general election, 4.2 million voters cast a ballot early out of a total of 5.7 million overall voters, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections. Shortening early voting could upset voters who have gotten used to the current period for the option to cast a ballot, said Brandon Lenoir, an associate professor of political science and strategic communication at High Point University. 'Many voters like the convenience of having roughly two weeks to cast their ballot,' Lenoir told The High Point Enterprise. 'Reducing the early voting period to a week takes away some of that convenience and gives voters fewer days to vote. Fewer days means more people standing in line to vote.' House Bill 66 was introduced by Republican representatives in the GOP-controlled N.C. General Assembly. But the partisan impact of the proposal isn't cut and dried, Dinan said. 'For some time in North Carolina, Democrats took much more advantage of early voting than Republicans did. But this shifted dramatically in 2024 after Republicans began encouraging their voters to vote early, and they did vote early in significant numbers,' he said. Lenoir said that shortening the period for early voting could lessen the burden on political campaigns. 'It costs the candidates time and money to have campaign staff and volunteers work the polls for those extra days,' he said. Dinan said that it's not certain what effects shortening early voting would have on counties that administer elections. 'This bill would ease some of the pressures on local governments and poll workers by limiting the number of days they would have to be open for early voting,' he said. 'But on the other hand, it would increase the number of voters who would be showing up on the remaining limited number of early voting days and would create more pressure on them in that sense.' Dinan said that it's likely House Bill 66 would face challenges in the courts if it passes. 'A federal court issued a ruling a decade ago preventing enforcement of a comprehensive set of elections law changes that included shortening the early-voting period,' Dinan said.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Carolina bills push to reduce early voting, challenge governor's clemency powers
RALEIGH, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Republicans in the State House of Representatives introduced bills Wednesday related to early voting and further limiting gubernatorial powers. House Bill 66, sponsored by Rep. Wyatt Gable (R-Onslow County), calls for decreasing the number of days allotted for early voting in North Carolina. It would begin no earlier than the second Monday before an election, compared to the third Thursday that is currently practiced. The early voting period would still end at 3 p.m. the Saturday before each election. The other legislation, House Bill 64, aims to limit the governor's authority to grant clemency to convicted criminals. Anson County Rep. Mark Brody wants this power to be approved by the General Assembly and would be extended beyond conviction to include the start of the defendant's sentence. Gov. Cooper commutes 15 death sentences on last day as North Carolina governor The Bill, if passed, would go to the ballots to be approved by the state's voters in 2026. Just before Roy Cooper's governship ended in December, he commuted 15 death row sentences and issued two pardons of forgiveness. Last December also saw the passage of Senate Bill 382, when Republicans overrode a Cooper veto that limited not only governor's power, but that of other state leaders. Many of the new Council of State members who took office in January are Democrats, including Gov. Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
