Committee Getting Close on Draft Bill to Increase Benefits

A study committee is just a week away from finalizing a draft of legislation that would take Alabama’s permanent partial disability benefits from the lowest in the country to something near the regional average, committee members said. “We’re probably very, very close to having it done,” said Larry King, a claimants’ lawyer in Birmingham and member of an Alabama Bar Association subcommittee tasked with revamping parts of the state’s oft-criticized workers’ compensation law. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll have something by ...