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The Defense Base Act Blog

Deals with Defense Base Act claims and 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, Afghanistan, and around the world.
By Aaron Walter and Herbert Chestnut

Post Frequency: 0.2/day

Last Entry: September 24, 2009 at 17:09:36

KBR Contractor Still Waiting on Medical Treatment Two Years Later

Posted on September 24, 2009
The Tuesday September 22, 2009 edition of The Boerne Star tells the sad story of Mark McLean who was injured in Iraq running from incoming fire from insurgents in April of 2007. Not only has Mark endured months of physical pain and suffering awaiting the system to help him, he has become an unwilling expert [...

After 1,300+ Contractor deaths, Military death toll in Iraq does not tell the whole story

Posted on May 25, 2009
In a Memorial Day Washington Post column, columnist Steven Schooner raises a point familiar to this blog. In media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the more than 1,000 civilian contractors killed, and nearly 29,000 injured are generally portrayed as a footnote, a byproduct of the war like its monetary cost...

Current Blackwater contractors may continue to work in Iraq for Triple Canopy

Posted on April 06, 2009
In what does not entirely come as a shock, instead of hundreds of former Blackwater securtiy contractors flooding home the United States or to their home countries upon the completion of their former contracts, it looks like many will simply stay under contracts with rival contractor Triple Canopy...

Who can I choose as my doctor under the Defense Base Act?

Posted on March 15, 2009
This is a question I am not asked frequently enough. The answer is simple - under the Defense Base Act you can choose any qualified physician under the sun to treat your injuries. That is a flexibility not offered under most state workers’ compensation systems...

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What rights does the Defense Base Act provide for those with severe bodily injuries?

Posted on March 13, 2009
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have introduced a new range of injuries to standard workers’ compensation - IED attacks, Al Queada rocket attacks, and other war related dangers have resulted in unthinkable internal and external damage, traumatic brain injuries, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)...

The Department of Defense may be pondering changes in Defense Base Act coverage

Posted on March 11, 2009
According to a recent Department of Defense posting, it is seeking comments concerning the future of the Defense Base Act insurance system, which in case you are new to this blog, is a workers’ compensation that covers civilian employees working for companies contracting overseas through the Department of Defense...

1,264 civilian contractors have died in Iraq/Afghanistan according to most recent figures

Posted on March 09, 2009
That total is according to Pentagon figures released in September 2008. Sadly, that number rises weekly and the AP has reported another death, a Dyncorp employee shot by a sniper. We reported last spring that the death toll of government contractors had just surpassed 1,000...

Iraq veteran disabled by ?Iraq?s Agent Orange? due to exposure to hexavalent chromium

Posted on March 08, 2009
The March 7, 2009 issue of the “Oregonian” tells the tale of Oregon Army National Guardsman Larry Roberta, who sadly suffers from a host of respitory disorders due to his 2003 exposure to hexavalent chromium in Iraq. Six years later, and after law suits have been filed against KBR for their alleged failure to test for the substance [...

Is the Anaconda burn pit linked to illnesses in KBR contactors?

Posted on March 07, 2009
I have been receiving an increasing number of calls recently from former KBR contractors, especially from Camp Anaconda/Balad concerning unusual medical problems possibly associated with exposure to the “burn pits,” disturbingly common to the camps...

Plaintiff?s attempts to circumvent the Defense Base Act in negligence cases continue

Posted on March 01, 2009

Congress considers taking over Workers? Compensation under the Defense Base Act

Posted on October 18, 2008
I read recently that Congress was considering a proposal that the federal government take control of the administration, funding and all other aspects of the Defense Base Act. While I think that we all agree that AIG is not the most efficient and fair manager of the Act, just ask anyone who has ever had [...

2008 sees increase in number of Iraqi refugees allowed into the United States

Posted on September 26, 2008
The below story highlights the efforts of many within our government and numerous groups outside of it to increase the number of Iraqis granted visas to enter the United States. While there is hope for the future Iraq, the war has obviously displaced or negatively affected thousands of Iraqis...

2008 sees increase in number of Iraqi refugees allowed into the United States

Posted on September 25, 2008
The below story highlights the efforts of many within our government and numerous groups outside of it to increase the number of Iraqis granted visas to enter the United States. While there is hope for the future Iraq, the war has obviously displaced or negatively affected thousands of Iraqis...

Iraq electrocutions higher than previously reported

Posted on September 23, 2008
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 [...

U.S., Sixteen other countries agree to rules for private security contractors operating in war zones

Posted on September 20, 2008
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...

AIG in financial crisis, will this effect my Workers? Compensation benefits under the Defense Base Act? - Part 2

Posted on September 17, 2008
We have been receiving numerous emails in response to our previous posting on the AIG crisis and its effect on Defense Base Act claims. While it appears that a potential government bailout will keep AIG’s daily operations and claims management moving normally, we have been asked a lot of “What ifs?” What if AIG Worldsource, the DBA [...

Department of Defense increasing presence of civilian contractors in Afghanistan

Posted on September 16, 2008
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 [...

AIG in financial crisis, will this effect my Workers? Compensation benefits under the Defense Base Act?

Posted on September 15, 2008
On news of a potential downgrading of its debt rating, AIG’s stock fell 31% Friday and another 50% as of lunch time on Monday September 15. AIG has asked the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank to help raise $40 billion to avoid such a downgrading and is attempting to sell off its domestic automobile businesses and [...

The Defense Base Act Blog Honored by LexisNexis as one of the Top 25 Workers? Compensation Blogs

Posted on September 15, 2008
The LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation Law Center has selected its 2008 honorees for the Top 25 Blogs for Workers’ Compensation. Congratulations to all the honorees! Defense Base Act Blog - Deals with the legal aspects of the Defense Base Act Extension to the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act as it pertains to U...

Will the Defense Base Act foil the recent class action law suit against KBR?

Posted on September 12, 2008
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...

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the Defense Base Act

Posted on September 10, 2008
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...

Labor Market Surveys and the Defense Base Act ? How your benefits can be reduced

Posted on July 22, 2008
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...

Dispelling/Confirming some Defense Base Act Myths

Posted on July 20, 2008
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 [...

Defense Base Act applied to human trafficking case in Iraq

Posted on July 19, 2008
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 [...

The Defense Base Act does not apply to KBR? Be careful what you wish for

Posted on April 14, 2008
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...

The Defense Base Act - What is it and what rights does it provide?

Posted on March 18, 2008
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 [...

Hillary Clinton to Ban Private Security Contractors in Iraq ?

Posted on March 17, 2008
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...

KBR May Have Provided Tainted Water to US Troops in Iraq

Posted on March 15, 2008
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 [...

Security Contractor Blackwater Being Investigated For Tax Evasion?

Posted on March 15, 2008
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...

Sad News Regarding Several Security Contractors Missing Since 2006

Posted on March 14, 2008
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...

Are you receiving the proper amount in Workers? Compensation benefits?

Posted on March 12, 2008
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)...

Iraq Contractor KBR Has Dodged $500 Million in U.S. taxes

Posted on March 09, 2008
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 [...

Fisher v. KBR - Fifth Circuit to Consider Jurisdiction Over Contractors in Iraq

Posted on March 07, 2008
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...

Do Americans View Contractors in Iraq as ?Expendable Profiteers??

Posted on March 06, 2008
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...

AIG may have overcharged KBR and other contractors for Defense Base Act Coverage

Posted on February 29, 2008
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 [...

In outsourced U.S. wars, contractor deaths top 1,000

Posted on February 29, 2008
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...

Welcome to Herbert Chestnut & Associates?s Defense Base Act Blog

Posted on February 28, 2008
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 [...