As a workers’ compensation attorney in Douglasville, Georgia, which is part of Metro Atlanta, I am amazed at the increasing traffic that I have seen over the years. Recently, the Douglas County Sentinel, the local newspaper for Douglas County, reported that gas prices are not affecting the city police patrols. Apparently, this has been a concern throughout many areas in Georgia and the country due to the recent raise in gas prices. It is also interesting to learn that municipalities generally pay less for gas than consumers. One Douglasville Police Officer was quoted as saying, “We will, of course, respond to calls and do preventative patrolling, but we have been encouraging officers to not leave their cars running while unattended.”
I am of the opinion that inflated gas prices have an adverse affect on workers. More importantly to my work as a Georgia lawyer who handles job injury cases, high gas prices have a highly negative affect on injured workers who are collecting temporary total disability benefits or temporary partial disability benefits after suffering a job injury. The amount of benefits in terms of weekly checks an injured worker receives does not go up based on out of control gas prices. As I have outlined in the past, the maximum temporary total disability rate for workers’ compensation benefits in Georgia is $500.00 per week. This is true whether your workers’ compensation case arose in Atlanta, Georgia, or a smaller town in Georgia such as Carrollton, Dallas, GA, or Villa Rica. An observation that I have recently found is that there is a great disparity in the amount of money it takes to live in Atlanta versus areas to the west of me. My practice as a workers’ compensation lawyer is mostly in the Atlanta area. However, I do handle cases statewide including the more rural counties west of me including Carroll County, Paulding County, and Haralson County.
I believe that the higher gas prices have an adverse impact on everybody, especially those who are commuting. In my practice, I have also provided legal representation to many over-the-road and local truck drivers who were injured in automobile accidents and truck accidents. Sometimes, the accidents are even my clients’ fault. Nevertheless, Georgia’s workers’ compensation laws generally cover accident arising out of and in the course of employment, whether or not the employee is “at fault.” Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Unfortunately, higher gas prices have had an adverse impact on truck drivers which make-up many of my clients.
Looking forward, I cannot help but feel the rise in gas prices will adversely affect the injured workers that I represent as an attorney, whether they live in Atlanta or elsewhere, due to the fact that their budgets are already constrained by what they are paid under workers’ compensation.
