Attorney John Steward Quoted in Missouri Lawyers Weekly

Attorney John Steward, of counsel for Meyerkord & Meyerkord, LLC, was recently quoted in a Missouri Lawyers Weekly article about the nearly insolvent Second Injury Fund. Meyerkord & Meyerkord is a St. Louis-based personal injury law firm.

St. Louis, Missouri (PRWEB) February 26, 2013

Attorney John Steward, of counsel for Meyerkord & Meyerkord, LLC, was recently quoted in an article for Missouri Lawyers Weekly. In the article, Attorney Steward shared his thoughts about the state's Second Injury Fund and the bill that might be able to put more money into it. For now, the Second Injury Fund is almost incapable of paying off its outstanding debts to injured Missouri workers. Attorney Steward is currently preparing an appeal regarding the fund and remains cautiously optimistic that the legislature will be able to fix the fund. He said, “Something's got to be done, one way or the other.” The fund is designed to help injured workers, but has received enough money to provide workers with the compensation they need.

Meyerkord & Meyerkord is currently handling a statewide class action to sue the various agencies of the State of Missouri for their failure to produce payment for Second Injury Fund claims (Circuit Court of Cole County, Missouri 11AC-CC00362). According to Missouri Lawyers Weekly, the Second Injury Fund is part of the Missouri workers' compensation system. In short, the fund is supported by a surcharge on workers' compensation premiums paid by businesses. In 2005, lawmakers placed a 3% cap on the surcharge, but 3% hasn't been enough to cover the number of work-related injury claims. Since then, the state has simply delayed payment to injured workers and now owes more than $28 million in judgments. Additionally, 30,000 pending cases have been backlogged, which could cost Missouri another $150 million.    

The bill would increase the current surcharge to 4.5% and allow the head of the Division of Workers' Compensation to increase the cap to 6%. In 2020, the cap would automatically switch back to 3%. In addition to increasing the surcharge, the bill would limit the types of claims that could benefit from the Second Injury Fund. According to Missouri Lawyer Weekly, the fund would only pay workers that suffered permanent total disabilities. Partial disabilities would be covered by traditional workers' comp.

Meyerkord & Meyerkord, LLC is a personal injury law firm in St. Louis, Missouri. At the firm, Attorney Steward and the rest of the firm's legal team represent clients in a wide variety of case types. Their personal injury practice areas include mass torts, medical malpractice, product injury, workers' compensation, nursing home abuse, car accidents, premises liability, and legal malpractice. Attorney Steward graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in 1996 and has practice law for more than ten years. To learn more about Meyerkord & Meyerkord, LLC, visit the firm's website at http://www.stlouis-personalinjury.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/2/prweb10473323.htm