NY Employers Threatened With Judgments over Failed Trusts

Trust…Trust…Trust… has no Trust.  So if your client has been out of a trust for a few years, find ways to reduce and recover overcharges on their current premiums because I’m sure they would like their money back to pay off these assessments!

Businesses across New York State could be facing judgments or shutdowns at job sites if attorneys negotiating to pay down $924.6 million in claims left from the state’s failed group self-insured trusts don’t reach a deal with the State Workers’ Compensation Board (SWCB).

Crain’s New York Business reported on Friday that scores of  New York businesses would be forced to shut down if forced to pay the assessments.

Crain’s quoted an SWCB spokesman as saying, “That’s kind of what they signed up for,” in response to complaints from New York business.

SWCB said businesses in the trusts represented by Phillips Lytle have paid $48 million in assessments so far.

“All of this will be avoided if they simply contribute towards the workers’ compensation obligations of their own employees,” the spokesman said.

A 4007 requires SWCB to make another report on the status of the trust system to lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo by Dec. 31.

The board’s Dec. 1, 1011, report on the status of individual trusts is here.

The Crain’s article is here.