Beauty Tilt End Woman’s Employee Compensation Fraud Attempt

To some individuals, their work is the only source of livelihood that they have. This makes it difficult for them to miss their work as doing so would mean cuts in their paychecks. That is why some of them, especially minimum wage earners have been making a conscious effort to be at work every day even if they are sick or have a medical condition that bothers them. However, there are times that an employee ends up getting sick or injured because of conditions in the workplace. While accidents can generally be avoided, some employers end up failing to do what is right which leave their employees hurt and injured. Realizing this, some lawmakers have come up with a form of insurance that will enable people to support employees even if they are unable to work due to a medical condition that leaves them disabled, either temporarily or permanently, and not able to work.

Workers’ Compensation

In dangerous workplaces, accidents that lead to injuries are quite frequently happening. Such leaves an employee disabled and unable to perform his duties at work. This makes them lose potential earnings. For them to be able to receive wage replacement and medical benefits to help them get treated or at least have a means of survival in spite of not being able to work, a workers’ compensation insurance is made. Through this, one can get payments in place of wages, compensation for economic loss, reimbursement for the payment of medical and other similar expenses, as well as benefits that are payable to the dependents of the workers should they get killed during employment. All of these are given in exchange for one’s mandatory relinquishment of their right to sue their employer for negligence. This, according to lawmakers are a win-win solution as an injured or killed employee, and his or her family’s future is secured without having to go through the painful and difficult stage of litigation for charges that one will file against their employers.

Abuse of Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Sadly there are individuals who would want to take advantage of these forms of insurance. Case in point is the story of Shawna Palmer, a female worker in Sacramento, California. According to authorities, Palmer pretended that she had a foot injury that has been keeping her from going to work. The owners of the company then have let Palmer take a leave of absence while she was receiving her workers’ compensation benefits, something that she requested for. Not long after though, videos of Palmer joining a beauty pageant surfaced, a clear case of fraud. In the pageants, she was even seen wearing high-heeled shoes while walking on the ramp. After getting busted for lying, the California Department of Insurance has booked Palmer for workers compensation fraud. If found guilty, Palmer might end up serving a full year in jail and pay up to $25,000 in fines, something that will be hard to do as her employer have already fired her.

A workers’ compensation attorney in California reminded employees that remedies like these should be respected and not used for taking advantage of your employer. Doing so may lead to legal complications that may get you in bigger trouble, something that you would definitely not want to happen. Since acts of fraud can be discovered most of the time, cases like these might end up with you not being able to file such claims when the real need arises.