Owner: The Defense Base Act Blog URL:http://defensebaseactblog.com/ Join Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:21:16 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: The Defense Base Act Blog is the only known blog dealing with the legal aspects of the Defense Base Act Extension to the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act as it pertains to U.S. contractors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Site statistics:Click here
Iraq Contractor KBR Has Dodged $500 Million in U.S. taxes 2008-03-09 23:19:45 Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) sure is a piece of work. Lets recap a week or so of posts concerning KBR.
1. KBR has been passing along to the American taxpayer, AIG’s inflated premiums for Defense Base Act coverage, so that KBR (and other contractors in Iraq
and Afghanistan) could be insulated from liability for injuries to [...] Read more:Contractor
Fisher v. KBR - Fifth Circuit to Consider Jurisdiction Over Contractors in Iraq 2008-03-07 12:04:40 The sad back story of this court case has come to be known as the “Good Friday Massacre.” Friday, April 9, 2004, hundreds of insurgents attacked a KBR convoy, killing 6 civilian drivers, injuring 14, and leaving another driver still missing to this day.
To make a long story short, KBR a former subsidiary of Halliburton has been [...] Read more:Circuit
, Contractors
, Fifth
, Fisher
, Iraq
Do Americans View Contractors in Iraq as “Expendable Profiteers?” 2008-03-06 18:36:15 In a recent Houston Chronicle article, Steven Schooner, senior associate dean of the George Washington University School of Law and apparent expert on military outsourcing, revealed this as a possible explaination of the lack of public knowledge and debate concerning American, non-military casualties, in Iraq
.
The public all too frequently perceives contractor personnel in Iraq as expendable profiteers, adventure-seekers or [...] Read more:Americans
, Contractors
AIG may have overcharged KBR and other contractors for Defense Base Act Coverage 2008-02-29 15:00:37 This comes as no surprise to many, but AIG may have been lining its pockets at the expense U.S. taxpayers. AIG is currently under investigation for overcharging KBR Inc., the Army’s largest contractor in Iraq, possibly by tens of millions. The money paying for these overpriced premiums comes from tax payers as part of the $23+ Billion [...] Read more:Coverage
, Defense
In outsourced U.S. wars, contractor deaths top 1,000 2008-02-29 12:42:29 In outsourced U.S. wars, contractor deaths
top 1,000
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The death toll for private contractors in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has topped 1,000, a stark reminder of the risks run by civilians working with the military in roles previously held by soldiers.
A further 13,000 contractors have been wounded in the two [...]
Welcome to Herbert Chestnut & Associates’s Defense Base Act Blog 2008-02-28 11:47:33 We hope that this blog will serve as a resource to many, especially to injured contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. My name is Aaron Walter and I’m an attorney in Atlanta, GA. Myself and Mr. Chestnut
will be frequently posting on this site with news, commentary, and with tips from our experience [...] Read more:Associates
, Defense
, Herbert
, Welcome
Are you receiving the proper amount in Workers’ Compensation benefits? 2008-03-12 10:39:59 I had an Informal Conference today. For those of you who have not gotten to this stage yet, an Informal Conference is your opportunity to discuss a problem you are having with your claim with the District Office of the Office of Workers
’ Compensation
Programs (OWCP). The conference is normally held by telephone and involves [...]
Sad News Regarding Several Security Contractors Missing Since 2006 2008-03-14 09:27:06 This disappointing story was reported yesterday by the Washington Post:
Five Severed Fingers Identified as Belonging To Guards Held in Iraq
”The four Crescent contractors whose fingers have been identified are Jonathon Cote, 25, of Getzville, N.Y.; Paul Reuben, 41, of Buffalo, Minn.; Joshua Munns, 25, of Redding, Calif.; and Bert Nussbaumer, 26, of Vienna, Austria. The [...] Read more:Contractors
, Missing
Hillary Clinton to Ban Private Security Contractors in Iraq ? 2008-03-17 11:57:01 We try to stay away from the political debate over Iraq
, but this tidbit is quite topical in our ongoing discussion of the Defense Base Act (DBA). Private
security contractors have been controversial addtions to the U.S.’s contractor forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on the nature of their positions in this dangerous arena, it [...] Read more:Clinton
, Contractors
, Hillary
, Hillary Clinton
KBR May Have Provided Tainted Water to US Troops in Iraq 2008-03-15 23:40:03 And the hits keep coming for KBR. Click - KBR - in case you missed their previous antics.
US contractor may have provided tainted water to soldiers in Iraq
A spate of illnesses among US troops at several bases in Iraq may have been caused by untested and possibly tainted water supplied by a private contractor then [...] Read more:Tainted
, Troops
Security Contractor Blackwater Being Investigated For Tax Evasion? 2008-03-15 21:59:21 For more, see the March 12 post from the “Ataxingmatter’ Blog
House chairman asks agencies to probe Blackwater
By Rafael Enrique Valero rvalero@nationaljournal.com March 11, 2008
In letters sent to the Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration, and Labor Department on Monday, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, [...] Read more:Contractor
The Defense Base Act - What is it and what rights does it provide? 2008-03-18 11:02:59 The Defense
Base Act (DBA) is an extension to the federal workers’ compensation program which covers longshoremen and harbor workers. The Defense Base Act covers persons employed at U.S. defense bases overseas. The Defense Base Act is designed to provide medical treatment and compensation to employees of defense contractors injured in the scope and course [...]
The Defense Base Act does not apply to KBR? Be careful what you wish for 2008-04-14 12:02:57 I have been reading a lot of comments throughout the internet cheering the recent tort suits against KBR regarding the Good Friday Massacre and also potential sodium dichromate exposures.
See - “Hoist by their own petard” and “Suing the crap out of KBR.”
Part of their argument is that KBR should not be able to “hide behind” [...] Read more:Defense
Five questions you should always ask your lawyer 2008-06-19 10:10:05 It is difficult enough to hire an attorney when you are familiar with the legal issue and the lawyers you deal with. When an individual has been injured and needs a workers’ compensation or personal injury attorney for the first time, it is almost impossible to know if you are selecting the right attorney. Ironically, [...] Read more:always
, questions
Labor Market Surveys and the Defense Base Act – How your benefits can be reduced 2008-07-22 12:03:13 Along with IMEs (Independent Medical Examinations) and FCEs (Functional Capacity Evaluations), the Labor Market
Survey is a common device used by insurer’s to suspend or reduce your benefits.
A labor market survey is study of the job market in your area, performed by a “Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist” who is hired by the insurance company. It [...] Read more:Defense
, reduced
Dispelling/Confirming some Defense Base Act Myths 2008-07-20 11:23:13 1. The Defense
Base Act only applies to US Citizens
FALSE - The DBA applies both to US Citizens and to foreign nationals. So long you were injured while working for a company contracting directly with the US government (usually the Department of Defense) that is in some way providing support to the US military [...] Read more:Myths
Defense Base Act applied to human trafficking case in Iraq 2008-07-19 11:22:00 I came accross this July 11, 2008 story from the Washington Business Journal.
It tells the sad tale of 12 men from Nepal hired by KBR subcontractor, Daoud & Partners to work in a luxury hotel in Jordan. Unfortunately, these men were forcibily re-directed, if not kidnapped, by the subcontractor and sent to Iraq
to serve [...] Read more:applied
, Defense
, human
, trafficking
Fisher v. Halliburton - KBR Lawsuit Revived 2008-07-17 12:57:30 Last month, in a somewhat surprising decision, U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a District Court ruling that employees of KBR could not sue their employer in tort. The opinion involved the so-called “Good Friday Massacre” where several truck drivers employed by KBR lost their lives when attacked by insurgents. The plaintiffs sued KBR [...] Read more:Fisher
, Halliburton
, Lawsuit
Department of Defense increasing presence of civilian contractors in Afghanistan 2008-09-16 19:57:04 Washington Post writer Walter Pincus notes an increase in proposed contracts to civilian companies to operate in Afghanistan
. It seems this will coincide with a potential “surge” in the ever-bloodier warfront in Afghanistan.
“The military is stretched very thin, and to keep low the deployments numbers, there is a tendency to go to contractors who have [...] Read more:Defense
, Department
Will the Defense Base Act foil the recent class action law suit against KBR? 2008-09-12 11:06:38 The Fulton County Daily Report has reported that a firm right here in Atlanta, Georgia has filed a class
action law suit in Fulton County Superior Court against
Kellog, Root, & Brown (KBR) alleging that the company has employed poorly trained and under-qualified workers in Iraq, leading to injurious results for countless fellow employees.
I could agree with that [...] Read more:Defense
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the Defense Base Act 2008-09-10 00:00:27
More and more civilian contractors have been returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to find themselves unable to sleep, eat, work, and return to their former selves. While it certainly is not something widely covered in the media, most civilian contractors in the war zone are under similar conditions as our men and women in uniform.
Rocket [...] Read more:Defense
, Stress Disorder
2008 sees increase in number of Iraqi refugees allowed into the United States 2008-09-26 20:29:21 The below story highlights the efforts of many within our government and numerous groups outside of it to increase the number of Iraqi
s granted visas to enter the UnitedStates
. While there is hope for the future Iraq, the war has obviously displaced or negatively affected thousands of Iraqis. During the 2007 fiscal year, only [...]
Iraq electrocutions higher than previously reported 2008-09-23 01:27:35 A September 9, 2008 AP article reveals that there have been at least 18 electrocutions in Iraq
involving U.S. soldiers or civilian contractors. A May 28, 2008 CNN article on one such incident placed the number of soliders electrocuted at only 12. As if soldiers and contractors didn’t have enough to worry about concerning the obvious dangers in [...] Read more:reported
U.S., Sixteen other countries agree to rules for private security contractors operating in war zones 2008-09-20 07:09:27 The United States and sixteen other countries including Great Britain, Iraq, and Afghanistan have entered into an agreement purportedly to ensure that private military contractors in war zones opperate under some form of international law, rather than in a lawless void. The United States has some 8,000 private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan protecting civilian staff, diplomats, [. Read more:security
, Sixteen
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