DESIGNATION OF HEALTH CARE AGENT FOR MY SON
(INCLUDING PERMISSION TO TRAVEL)
I, _______________ of _______________ County, Texas hereby designate my brother and sister-in-law, _______________, to be the health care agents (referred to herein jointly as my “Health Care Agent”) for my son, _______________ (referred to herein as “my son”). In the event _______________ both die, fail to serve, or cease to serve for any reason, I hereby designate my brother and sister-in-law, _______________, to be the health care agents (referred to herein jointly as my “Health Care Agent”) for my son.
I expressly give my Health Care Agent permission and authority to make any and all health care decisions related to the welfare of my son at all times when I am absent from the City of _______________, Texas, or at any time when my son have been left in the care of my Health Care Agent. In addition, I expressly give my Health Care Agent permission to travel with my son to any location outside the City of _______________, Texas, for any reason my Health Care Agent deems necessary
_______________, Declarant
The foregoing instrument was signed by _______________ in our presence, and we, the undersigned witnesses, sign our names hereunto as witnesses at Declarant’s request and in Declarant’s presence, and in the presence of each other, on _________________________, 20_.
Witness
Witness
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
In an effort to deter odometer fraud and to protect consumers, the 99th Congress of the
United States enacted the Truth in Mileage Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-579) which
amended Title IV of the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act, 15 U.S.C.
1981-1991. In order to comply with this Act, Federal rules and Texas law, the department
revised the odometer disclosures on certificate of titles issued on and after April 29, 1990,
to contain the following:
• The odometer reading at the time of transfer, not to include tenths of miles;
• The date of the odometer disclosure statement;
• The signature, hand printed name and current address of the transferor (seller);
• The signature, hand printed name and current address of the transferee (buyer);
Note: The same individual may not sign an Odometer Disclosure Statement as both
buyer and seller.
• The vehicle description, including make, model, year, body style, and VIN;
• A statement referring to the Federal and State law advising that failure to complete or
providing false information may result in fines and/or imprisonment; and
• A certification completed by the transferor (seller) stating that, to the best of their
knowledge, the odometer reading reflects the actual mileage, not actual mileage, or
that the actual mileage is in excess of the mechanical limits of the odometer.
Note: The department discontinued the Odometer Disclosure Statement, Form
VTR-40 effective January 1, 2011. If there is an actual buyer and seller or the
vehicle is exempt, complete the odometer statement on the vehicle assignment.
If there is not an actual buyer and seller, record odometer information
directly on the Application for Texas Title, Form 130-U.
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
The Work Status Report is a communication tool used to inform the insurance carrier, employer, and injured employee of the injured employee’s ability to work.
When is the DWC Form 73 required?
Submitted by the treating doctor and referral doctor
•At the request of the insurance carrier:
•Must be based on scheduled appointments with the injured employee; and
•Not more than once every two weeks.
A complete report indicates whether the injured employee:
•is able to work without restrictions,
•is able to work with restrictions and gives an explanation of what the restrictions are, or
•is unable to work and gives an explanation of how the injury prevents the employee from returning to work.
Who submits the DWC Form 73 ?
28 TAC §126.6, 127.10, 129.5
•The injured employee’s treating doctor.
•A doctor to whom the treating doctor referred the injured employee.
•A designated doctor under a TDI-DWC order.
•A required medical exam (RME) doctor upon request from the insurance carrier.
Common Errors When Completing and Submitting the DWC Form 73:
•Dates indicating how long the injured employee can work with restrictions and the specific activity restrictions are not provided
•Dates indicating how long the injured employee cannot return to work and a description of how the injury prevents the employee from returning to work
•Doctor does not sign the form.
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
The Supreme Court said in Texas Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ledbetter, 251 S.W.3d 31 (Tex. 2008) :
“When an injured worker settles a case without reimbursing a compensation carrier, everyone involved is liable to the carrier for conversion – the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs’ attorney, and the defendants. As between those parties, we have held that generally those who received the funds unlawfully (the plaintiffs and their attorney) should disgorge them rather than making the tortfeasors pay twice.”
In this case, plaintiff’s attorney attempted to manipulate a settlement by dismissing all claims in a death case, except for the claims of the deceased’s estate. The Court ordered that the carrier’s intervention be reinstated. It also remanded the case with instructions for the trial court to protect the carrier’s subrogation interests.
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
Medical treatment guidelines are a delicate balance. Guidelines that are too restrictive may control costs in the short term, but limit necessary medical care to injured workers, who suffer unnecessarily, while outcomes fail to improve. Non-productive UR costs skyrocket when denials and friction clog the system, as good providers stop taking workers’ comp patients because they can’t get necessary medical care approved. Guidelines that are not restrictive enough, on the other hand, have little net effect. While ODG is unique in striving for and generally achieving this balance based on a thorough and ongoing review of the medical evidence, we still think it is important to allow for the possibility of exceptions. When and how those exceptions should be handled, together with explicit case study examples, providing the framework to ensure timely and appropriate medical care, should be clearly illustrated even for the unconventional injured worker.
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
Chronic depression alone doesn’t necessarily mean an employee is disabled within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Granting summary judgment for the Defendant Employer, the court found that the employee failed to establish that she was “disabled” within the meaning of the ADA. The definition of “disability” under the ADA requires (1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities; (2) a record of such impairment or, (3) being regarded as having such an impairment.
Bethel v. Garland, City of, Northern District of Texas No. 3-96-CV-1103-BD, September 11, 1997.
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
Workers’ compensation insurance coverage provides covered employees with income and medical benefits if they sustain a work-related injury or illness. Except as otherwise provided by law; Texas private employers can choose whether or not to provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage for their employees. Except in cases of gross negligence or an intentional act or omission of the employer, workers’ compensation insurance limits an employer’s liability if an employee brings suit against the employer for damages. Certain building or construction employers who contract with governmental entities are required to provide workers’ compensation coverage for each employee working on the public project. Some clients may also require their contractors to have workers’ compensation insurance. Providing Workers’ Compensation Insurance If employers choose to provide workers’ compensation, they must do so in one of the following ways:
• purchase a workers’ compensation insurance policy from an insurance company licensed by the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) to sell the coverage in Texas;
• be certified by the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation (TDI-DWC) to self-insure workers’ compensation claims; or
• join a self-insurance group that has received a certificate of approval from the TDI. Note: Political subdivisions may self-insure, buy coverage from insurance companies, or enter into inter-local agreements with other political subdivisions that self-insure. EMPLOYER RIGHTS Covered employers have the following rights:
• the right to contest the compensability of a workers’ compensation claim if the insurance carrier accepts liability for payment of benefits;
• the right to be notified of a proposal to settle a claim or of any administrative or judicial proceeding related to resolution of a claim (after making a written request to the insurance carrier);
• the right to attend dispute resolution proceedings related to an employee’s claim and present relevant evidence about the disputed issues; • the right to report suspected fraud to the TDI-DWC or to the insurance carrier;
• the right to contest the failure of the insurance carrier to provide required accident prevention services; and
• the right to receive return-to-work coordination services as necessary to facilitate an employee’s return to employment.
To dispute a workers’ compensation claim, an employer may file the DWC Form-004, and the DWC Form-045, Request to Schedule, Reschedule or Cancel a Benefit Review Conference (BRC), which may be obtained from the TDI website at http://www.tdi.texas.gov/forms/ form20employer.html or by calling 1-800-252-7031. Non-Reimbursable Employer Payments An employer is not entitled to and cannot seek reimbursement from the employee or insurance carrier if after a work-related injury or illness they voluntarily:
• continue to pay the injured employee’s salary continuation; or
• pay the injured employee salary supplementation to supplement income benfits paid by the insurance carrier. Employer Voluntary Payments of Benefits An employer may voluntarily pay income or medical benefits to an employee during a period in which the insurance carrier has: • contested compensability of the injury;
• contested liability for the injury; or
• has not completed its initial investigation of the injury. Note: an employer is only allowed to pay benefits in this situation for the first two weeks after the injury. For reimbursement, the employer is required to timely report the injury to the insurance carrier and to let the insurance carrier know, within 7 days of beginning voluntary payments, that voluntary payments are being made. The insurance carrier is only required to reimburse the employer for the amount of benefits the insurance carrier would have paid. If the employer made payments in excess of what the insurance carrier would have paid, the excess amount is not reimbursable, unless there is a written agreement between the injured employee and the employer that the excess amount can be recouped from future impairment income benefits paid by the insurance carrier, if any. The employer must file the DWC Form- 002, Employer’s Report for Reimbursement of Voluntary Payment. The DWC Form-002 may be obtained from the TDI website at http://www.tdi.texas.gov/forms/ form20employer.html or by calling 1-800-252-7031.
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
AUSTIN, TX –The Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) conducted performance audits of several insurance carriers on the accuracy of payments of Lifetime Income Benefits (LIBs) and Death Benefits (DBs). Through these audits, DWC discovered underpayments on 64 claims totaling over $511,000.
“One of my chief compliance priorities is to make sure injured employees and beneficiaries obtain benefits in a timely and accurate manner,” said Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation Ryan Brannan. “I am pleased to see that claimants received monies owed to them. However, I am concerned there may be other deserving claimants in the same situation. These results indicate that we need to continue these types of performance audits.”
The primary focus of these performance audits was to ensure compliance with Labor Code §408.081 which provides that an insurance carrier must pay income benefits accurately. The proper calculations of average weekly wage, LIBs, and DBs are detailed in Labor Code §§408.041, 408.161, and 408.181, and in 28 TAC §§128.1, 128.3, 131.2, and 132.1.
Common compliance errors discovered in these performance audits that contributed to the underpayment of benefits included:
Failure to pay 75% of average weekly wage
Failure to obtain a complete wage statement
Failure to properly calculate average weekly wage
Failure to include non-pecuniary wages in average weekly wage
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
“History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.” 1807
-Thomas Jefferson
“An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity.”
-Haile Selassie, Ethiopian Emperor
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
-Gerald Ford
“The era of big government is over.” State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996
-Bill Clinton
“The old man was a good man, he raised his children right. He taught us how to work hard and showed us how to fight. He told me about the good Lord and when to use a gun. He made me very proud of where it is that I come from… I might not make a history book but I’ll burn a page or two…. and I may not change the world but I’m going to leave a scar.”
-Charles Starr
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.” Speech, Virginia Convention, 1788
– James Madison
“The Washington Government was fast drifting towards centralization….”
-M.F. Maury
“The Washington politicians are right, there are two Americas. The America that works and the America that doesn’t. The America that contributes and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society and others don’t. That’s the divide in America . It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about politicians that preach hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It’s about politicians that love power more than they love their country. That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.”
-Lou Holtz
“This administration is pledged to a Federal revenue system that balances the budget over the years of the economic cycle – yielding surpluses for debt retirement in times of high employment that more than offset the deficits which accompany – and indeed help overcome – low levels of economic activity in poor years…Debt retirement at high employment contributes to economic growth by releasing savings for productive investment by private enterprise and State and local governments.” Special Message to the Congress: Program for Economic Recovery and Growth, February 2, 1961
-John F. Kennedy
“That road to V-E Day was hard and long, and traveled by weary and valiant men. And history will always record where that road began. It began here, with the first footprints on the beaches of Normandy.” In Normandy to mark the 60th anniversary, June 6, 2004
-George W. Bush
“Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.”
-Andrew Johnson
“It (the mass murder of Armenian Christians by the Turks) was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember… We will always reject any attempt to erase its record, even for some political advantage.” April 27, 1994 on the floor of the Knesset in response to a TV interview of the Turkish Ambassador
-Yossi Beilini, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister
“We dared not refuse to hear the call to arms, so plain was the duty and so urgent the call. Brethren and friends were answering the bugle-call and the sound of the drum…to stay was dishonor and shame”
-Carlton McCarthy
“I recall a Union soldier lying near the Dunker Church with his face turned upward, and his pocket Bible open upon his breast. I lifted the volume and read the words: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.’ Upon the fly-leaf were the words, ‘We hope and pray that you may be permitted by kind Providence, after the war is over, to return.” Antietam Scenes, Battles and Leaders. Vol II
-Charles Carlton Coffin, Army Correspondent, Boston Journal
“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.”
-John Adams
“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.”
-General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, General of the U.S. Army
“It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.”
-George E. MacDonald, Scottish Novelist
“In every declining civilization there is a small ―remnant‖ of people who adhere to the right against the wrong; who recog-nize the difference between good and evil and who will take an active stand for the former and against the latter; who can still think and discern and who will courageously take a stand against the political, social, moral, and spiritual rot or decay of their day.” Toward a New World Order, 1992
-Donald S. McAlvaney, Switzerland
“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.”
-Noah Webster
“Public opinion: May it always perform one of its appropriate offices, by teaching the public functionaries of the State and of the Federal Government, that neither shall assume the exercise of powers entrusted by the Constitution to the other.”
-James Knox Polk
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
A St. Louis federal jury has awarded $391 million, including $35.5 million in punitive damages, against PNC Bank following a five-week jury trial.
The plaintiffs were the Special Deputy Receiver (SDR), Jo Ann Howard and Associates, appointed by the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Insurance; the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA) on behalf of 28 state guaranty associations, and the state guaranty associations of Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky.
The SDR, NOLHGA and the state guaranty associations joined forces to pursue breach of fiduciary duty and negligence claims against PNC, which was the successor to Allegiant Bank and Trust Company, a St. Louis-based bank that had served as a trustee for multiple pre-need funeral trusts.
“This has been a superb team effort with the guaranty associations. We are very pleased with the jury’s award,” said David Mattax, the Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Texas.
Peter Gallanis, president of NOLHGA, said, “We are proud that the guaranty associations have met their obligations to ensure that the consumer losses were covered. The jury’s verdict is the next step in the process.”
Thousands of consumers and multiple funeral homes had entered into contracts with a company known as National Prearranged Services (NPS), which was run by a number of individuals who were indicted and convicted of fraud. NPS sold pre-need funeral contracts initially in Missouri and used two affiliated Texas-based life insurance companies to back the pre-need funeral contracts. In 2008, NPS and the two insurance companies were placed in receivership in Austin, Texas. The SDR and state guaranty association system worked together to ensure that thousands of funerals were paid for. Since 2008, the guaranty associations have paid more than $300 million for in excess of 50,000 funerals in 40 states. The guaranty associations will pay for all covered future funerals, which will be additional millions of dollars.
Williams, McClure & Parmelee is dedicated to high quality legal representation of businesses and insurance companies in a variety of matters. We are experienced Texas civil litigation attorneys based in Fort Worth who know Texas courts and Texas law. For more information, please contact the law firm at 817-335-8800. The firm’s new office location is 5601 Bridge Street, Suite 300, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.
![texas[2]](https://texasdefensecounsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/texas2.gif)