Outgoing WILG President Malcolm Crosland Reviews the Year’s Highlights Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group® Makes Strides in 2021 Despite COVID-19
Sep 23, 2021
Malcolm M. Crosland, Jr. Esq.
Charleston, SC (Law Firm Newswire) September 23, 2021 – Attorney Malcolm M. Crosland Jr., outgoing president of the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group®, reflects on the past year’s triumphs, as well as challenges.
WILG is a national non-profit membership organization dedicated to representing the interests of millions of workers and their families who, each year, suffer the consequences of work-related injuries or occupational illnesses and who need expert legal assistance to obtain medical care and other relief under workers’ compensation programs. WILG is a network of likeminded advocates for workers’ rights, sharing information and knowledge, and networking to help each other and clients.
WILG president, Crosland, admits that COVID-19 made this year challenging, however, despite all challenges that COVID-19 brought, Crosland and the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group® accomplished a great deal during 2021.
One of their most significant accomplishments involved creating a designated task force within WILG to address and modify the editorial revisions of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (Sixth Edition) that physicians use. The American Medical Association (AMA) publishes this guide as a resource for physicians to use in evaluating and assessing permanent impairment caused by an injury. More than 40 states and several countries reference the AMA guide as the accepted authority to evaluate and rate permanent loss of function from an injury. The AMA employs its own board and editorial staff to publish this guide.
Approximately two years ago, the AMA minimally announced it would revise the Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (Sixth Edition). The methodology to change and update the guide was not transparent. Attorney Crosland feared that additional changes by the AMA would only accelerate what many workers’ comp law practitioners feel was already an erosion of impairment ratings for injured workers. The sixth edition was heavily criticized and its use rejected by many states and workers’ comp systems because of how the edition was edited and the generally accepted fact that it reduced impairment ratings to the detriment of workers. This guide is crucial as it dictates the flow of millions of dollars in workers’ compensation.
Another task Attorney Crosland took on was expanding and adding diversity to the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group® membership and board. While approximately a thousand lawyers across 50 states are a part of the WILG, the membership does not reflect the world today. To improve diversity among the organization, the WILG hired a diversity consultant to rework the organization’s diversity policy and create structural ongoing policies and procedures that will help ensure diversity within the WILG even after Crosland’s tenure as president ends. The WILG’s goal is to improve racial and gender membership diversity as well as LGBTQ and socio-economic based membership.
Attorney Crosland will successfully finish out his term as the WILG president at the end of September accomplishing many tasks for the WILG organization. He will continue to serve on several committees, and as immediate past president, he is the chair of the nominating committee and serves on the AMA guide task force he helped create. Malcolm Crosland plans to continue his advocacy for workers’ rights and practice law in workers’ compensation and personal injury with The Steinberg Law Firm, where he is a partner in their Charleston, South Carolina office.
The Steinberg Law Firm has advocated for injured workers since 1927. Founder, Irving Steinberg, was instrumental in working to get workers’ compensation laws on the books in the state of South Carolina and the firm carries on his legacy today. For more information visit their website at https://www.steinberglawfirm.com or call (843) 720-2800.
Steinberg Law Firm
61 Broad St
Charleston, SC 29401
Phone: (843) 720-2800
118 S Goose Creek Blvd
Goose Creek, SC 29445
Phone: (843) 572-0700
103 Grandview Drive
Summerville, SC 29483
Phone: (843) 871-6522
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