Big Wins This Week

Stewart Poisson had a big win this week!

Stewart Poisson co-authored a Court of Appeals brief on behalf of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice in a workers’ compensation case involving the correct method for calculating the workers’ compensation weekly benefit for a worker injured on the job while employed by a staffing service. On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals held in favor of the injured worker on this important issue, thanks in part to Stewart’s work.

Stewart Poisson not only handles workers’ compensation cases for the firm’s clients, but she also assists in writing “friend-of-the-court” briefs in important workers’ compensation cases that other firms handle. Stewart is very interested in making sure that the appellate courts properly interpret the law affecting her clients. Stewart co-authored one of these “friend-of-the-court” briefs for the North Carolina Advocates for Justice last year, and just this week, the Court of Appeals reversed the Industrial Commission in Nay v. Cornerstone Staffing and found in favor of the injured worker.

The issue in the case was how to correctly calculate the weekly workers’ compensation rate for an injured worker employed by a staffing agency or temp agency. The Court clarified the law and held that “[Mr.] Nay’s employment relationship with Cornerstone, like most at-will employment in this State, did not have a definite, specified end date, whereas the plaintiff’s employment in Tedder was definite in light of being hired to work for the defendant temporarily for a specified, limited period of seven weeks.” This is a major win for injured workers who were having their weekly benefits slashed just because they were employees of a staffing agency. Click here to read the brief. https://www.ncappellatecourts.org/show-file.php?document_id=247620

If you or someone you know needs help with a workers’ compensation case call Poisson, Poisson & Bower, PLLC today. We have offices in Wadesboro and Wilmington, North Carolina. We can help ensure that your case is handled fairly and give you our best efforts in assisting you to obtain the benefits you deserve.