Practice Areas
Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Safety
Human Resources Support
Labor Law
Discrimination/Wrongful Termination
Medical Administration and Strategy Management
Legislative Advocacy
Employment Applications
Labor/Unions
Anti-Discrimination Law Compliance
Immigration Reform and Control Act
Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Safety
Our Firm works to help each of our clients resolve workers’ compensation claims quickly and economically, while at the same time positioning them for successful outcomes in the event that litigation becomes necessary. It is our belief that competent and assertive legal representation in litigation is only one facet of an effective workers’ compensation claims strategy. A truly effective workers’ compensation claims strategy requires a comprehensive team approach, which in our law practice includes regular communication between us and the employer’s safety department, human resources department, the employer’s workers’ compensation administrator, the insurance carriers’ claims administrator, and the medical care providers. The overarching goal of any effective workers’ compensation claims strategy is to minimize the all over liability and cost of a workers’ compensation claim. Achieving this goal starts with early investigation and evaluation of each claim and extends to effective management and litigation of a claim through closure.
Our extensive experience in workers’ compensation law includes:
- - Representation of employers in various types of workers’ compensation claims, including disputes regarding
occurrence of claimed injuries, timely reporting of claims, and late filing of claims. - - Extensive client counseling on how to administer and manage workers’ compensation claims.
- - Preparation of pleadings, motions, briefs, and legal memoranda.
- - Preparation of case status letters to clients; reviewing medical records and communicating with doctors; analyzing risk of exposure to liability under various claims.
- - Assess a claimant’s entitlement to temporary total disability, vocational rehabilitation, and permanent partial disability (PPD) ratings under the 5th Edition to the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.
- - Successful representation of employer/company seeking subrogation and reimbursement of indemnity and medical benefits paid on an accident and resulting injuries that were the fault of a third party.
- - Representation of a distribution and logistics company in a range of workers compensations claims, hearings, proceedings, and trials.
- - Advise employers on when and how an employee's situation is covered by the ADA, the FMLA, and the state workers' compensation statutes.
- - Train employers on understanding the employer's obligations under the ADA, the FMLA and the state workers' compensation statutes. Develop a decision-making process for employers to identify and diagnose ADA, FMLA and WC issues
- - Assist claims examiners and HR professionals on how to determine compensability of a claim and how to utilize this information in the medical administration, claims management and litigation of a claim.
- - Develop medical investigation and discovery plan to determine the nature and extent of disability.
- - Successfully defended several cases where employee/claimants attempt to unlawfully secure workers’compensation benefits through symptom magnification, malingering, and fraud.
- - Comprehensive understanding of how law interacts with medical treatment and care of a claim to determine which types of benefits are appropriate.
• Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Safety Training
o Top Ten Tips for Reducing Workers’ Compensation Costs
o Understanding the cause and cure for workplace injuries and occupational diseases
o Interplay between FMLA, ADA and Workers’ Compensation
o Leave Programs
o Shifting Liability to another employer
o Subrogation
o Understanding Impairment Evaluations Under the AMA Guides
o Vocational Rehabilitation: Policy Priorities, Successful Program Plans, and Buy Outs.
o Retaliatory Discharge for Filing Workers’ Compensation Claim
o Compensation: Understanding benefits under the NIIA
o Independent Medical Evaluations
o Medical Administration and Strategy
Human Resources Support
Our firm is an employer-focused employment and labor law firm. We work closely with HR Professionals to protect the rights and reputation of your business. We have experience assisting human resources professionals and the employers and employees they serve with a variety of issues, including:
• HR advice and counsel through our “Ask a Lawyer a Quick Question” E-mail service
• Human resource audits
• Employee handbooks
• Disciplining and terminating employees
• Policies and procedures
• Drug and alcohol programs
• Training supervisors in avoiding sexual harassment, promoting diversity and complying with state and federal law
• HR audits/planning
• Human relations – aligning the interests of management with the workforce
• Employee Relations
o Employment applications and hiring processes
o Interviewing Do’s and Don’ts
o Job Descriptions
o Pre-Employment Screening
o Drug Testing
o Employee Handbooks
o Electronic Communications Policies
o Employee Privacy Issues
o Military Leave
o Internal Investigations/Employee Misconduct
o Effective Discipline and Documentation
o Employee Termination
• Employment Contracts
• Non-Compete Agreements
• Unfair Competition-Protecting Confidential Information
• Severance Pay Plans and Releases
• Preventing Wrongful Discharge Claims
Labor Law
Labor union matters can be devastating to your business. We actively monitor new developments in labor law and with the activity and initiatives of labor unions. We represent employers in a wide variety of labor-related matters, including:
• NLRB and State Labor Board cases
• Labor negotiations
• Collective bargaining
• Unfair labor practice
• "Union free" programs
• Counter-organizing campaigns
• Strikes and picketing
• Grievances and arbitration
Discrimination/Wrongful Termination
Discrimination and wrongful termination charges, whether valid or frivolous, can be devastating to a business and costly. We are dedicated to preserving the integrity of your business. We stay informed and well-versed in the dynamic and ever changing laws and regulations of discrimination and wrongful termination to provide competent and effective representation to our clients. We defend employers who have been accused of and/or charged with a number of offenses, including (but not limited to):
• Discrimination claims (age, race, disability, gender, and others)
• Sexual harassment claims
• EEOC, NERC and other state and local anti-discrimination agency claims
• Claims in state and federal courts
• Wrongful termination claims based on various legal theories
• Claims under EPL insurance
• ADA compliance cases
• Equal Pay and Wage and Hour claims
• FMLA and leave matters
Medical Administration and Strategy
Management
• HR Audits/Planning
• Human relations – aligning the interests of Management with the workforce
• Hiring Practices, Background Checks, and FCRA
• Negligent Hiring, Supervision and Training
• Employment Contracts
• Non-Compete Agreements
• Unfair Competition-Protecting Confidential Information
• Reductions in Force Reorganizations
• Severance Pay Plans and Releases
• Preventing Wrongful Discharge Claims
Employee Relations
Existing rules and principles can give us our present location, our bearings, our latitude and longitude. The inn that shelters for the night is not the journey's end. The law, like the traveler, must be ready for the morrow. It must have a principle of growth. -- Benjamin N. Cardozo, "The Growth of the Law," pp.19-20 (1924).
We recognize that one thing is certain: the law is never stagnant and is always changing. As political power shifts and policy priorities change, new legislation and regulation are proposed and enacted that will create additional rights, responsibilities and liabilities for employers. Our firm is committed to making sure you have a voice in the law and policy making process. As legislative advocates for employers, insurers, business interests and the human resources profession, we position our clients and our clients' associations to influence the introduction, enactment, or modification of policy, regulation and legislation. We accomplish this through lobbying, supporting or opposing ballot initiatives, collaborating with legislative networks, coalitions and campaigns, and monitoring the legislative process at the local, state and federal level. Our government affairs team and affiliated partners, provide a wide variety of legislative advocacy services, including:
- Direct lobbying
- Grassroots lobbying
- Ballot initiatives and issue advocacy
- Meta-advocacy: helping clients get involved in legislative advocacy. This includes teaching the mechanics of lobbying, the laws governing, lobbying and tracking legislation and votes.
Employment Applications
• Interviewing Do’s and Don’ts
• Job Descriptions
• Pre-Employment Screening
• Drug Testing
• Employee Handbooks
• Electronic Communications Policies
• Employee Privacy Issues
• Military Leave
• Internal Investigations/Employee Misconduct
• Effective Discipline and Documentation
• Employee Termination
Labor/Unions
• Remaining Union Free
• Union Election Campaigns
• Strikes, Picketing, Injunctions
• Collective Bargaining
• Grievances/Arbitration
• NLRA Compliance
• NLRB Procedures
• EEO and Affirmative Action Procedures
Anti-Discrimination Law Compliance
• Harassment Claim Avoidance
• Retaliation Claim Avoidance
• Internal Investigations
• Disabled Employees; Leaves of Absence; Workers’ Compensation
• Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance
• Family and Medical Leave Act Compliance
• COBRA Compliance
Immigration Reform and Control Act
• I-9s/Verification Procedures
• Audits: Internal and Federal
• Visas/NAFTA
• Health and Safety
News & Highlights
A Year of “Change” Impacting Workers’ Compensation Law in Nevada
Contact
10425 Double R Blvd.
Reno, NV 89521
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“The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily, that he can get you out of a scrape.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
©2009, The Law Office of Jason Guinasso, Ltd.