The Deuterman Law Group would like to send our show of support to the Virginia Tech community. 

From left to right: 
Back row: Benjamin Burnside, Dan Deuterman, Peggy Miller, Veronica Zeilfelder, Jaime Funderburk, Joel Davis, Peggy Walters, Erin Quintrell
Mid row:  Dawne Deuterman, Grace Kanoy, Robin Henley, Julie McHugh, Kristi Watson
Front row: Katie Cox

Although the folks at the Deuterman Law Group attended schools all over the world... today we are ALL HOKIES. Everyone dressed in Virginia Tech colors, donned on VT shirts to honor the victims. We would like to express to the school, friends, and families of the victims our heartfelt sorrow for their loss and know that people around the country have them in their prayers.

“It is a generous gesture on the part of the Deutermans to donate the painting to Women’s Hospital, with the proceeds from the purchase benefiting the March of Dimes,” Cindy Farrand, Vice President/Administrator, Women’s Hospital says.  

The Deutermans bought the painting at the Chef’s Auction, a local fundraiser for the March of Dimes. The Deuterman Law Group was a sponsor of the event, which funds programs designed to reduce the incidence of premature births.

“Though he is healthy and happy today, our son Jake weighed just two pounds at birth and spent five months in Neonatal Intensive Care,” Dan Deuterman says. “That means we had an up-close look at the skill and dedication of the team at Women’s Hospital and at the resources offered by the March of Dimes. We’re delighted to be able to honor both organizations and the families they serve.”

 “A Special Delivery” was created by Greensboro artist David Gaadt and portrays the arm and hand of a surgeon cradling a small infant. Gaadt painted the image from a photo by Paul Kuroda. The painting now hangs in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Women’s Hospital.

Benjamin is passionate about trial work and about representing the rights of injured workers.

While a law student, Benjamin completed internships with The Deuterman Law Group and with U.S. Middle District Court Judge James A. Beaty Jr.  Today he is a member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, the North Carolina Bar Association, the Greensboro Bar Association, and the Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group. 

Benjamin’s areas of practice include Social Security Disability, workers’ compensation, and personal injury. 

Employees delivered holiday gift bags to the home’s 120 elderly and disabled residents, many who do not have family with which to share the holidays.

Paralegal Erin Quintrell and her family volunteer at the nursing home weekly with their congregation at Cornerstone Baptist Church, 3228 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Quintrell’s husband, who is a Sunday school teacher and lay minister, leads church services at Britthaven every Tuesday night.

Two years ago, Quintrell brought in tags from Britthaven’s angel tree and asked her employers and coworkers if they’d each be willing to sponsor a resident and buy gifts for that person for the holidays. Dan and Dawne Deuterman, who founded the Deuterman Law Group, decided to support Quintrell’s charitable work by paying for the gifts for all the residents.

“I think I started crying,” said Quintrell, who thought she’d have to recruit many donors to fulfill her dream of providing gifts for every Britthaven resident. “These residents have become like my family.”

The Deutermans decided to do the same this holiday season, buying fleece blankets, socks, toiletries, Christmas ornaments, water bottles and sugar-free candy for the 50 men and 70 women who live at Britthaven. Personal Care Inc., a Greensboro-base home health care company, also provided some stadium blankets for the residents.

The Deutermans and the Deuterman Law Group donate to many charities because of their belief that it’s important to share your good fortune and to do good in the community. They also encourage their employees to volunteer and support them in those efforts.

“The Deutermans want to support their staff in their charitable endeavors,” said Grace Kanoy, the firm’s marketing director. “Erin is a really good employee, and helping the residents of Britthaven is something she is really passionate about.”

Quintrell said she’s thankful to work at a place like the Deuterman Law Group and grateful to her employers for their generous donation to Britthaven.

“It’s wonderful of them,” she said. “It’s definitely an encouragement to the people at Britthaven, and it’s definitely an encouragement to me. I realize how blessed I am to have the job I do.”

Scroll down to the letters from July 4 to read what Dan had to say.

Dan wrote about Kids' Chance and Lorraine Ahearn's recent column on the scholarship program.

Her father, a counselor for the Mecklenburg County Health Department, was returning from a workshop when he was critically injured in a car accident. He has never recovered from the injuries and remains in a semi-vegetative state 14 years later.

Kineshia's mother, Christine Irby was suddenly thrust into the role of a single parent. From that day forward, she alone became responsible for raising her only daughter, providing for her and making sure her dreams were realized. Their story illustrates just how devastating on-the-job injuries can be for workers and for their families.

But there is hope for families like the Irbys, who live in Charlotte. Kids' Chance of North Carolina provides scholarships to children whose parents have been catastrophically injured or killed in work-related accidents. Kineshia, who is a junior at Norfolk State University, was the state's first recipient of a Kids' Chance scholarship.

The scholarship program has been in existence for two years and has built up a $30,000 endowment. However, in that time, the group has received few applications from qualified students, said Martha Dealy, president of Kids' Chance of North Carolina.

Dan and Dawne Deuterman of the Deuterman Law Group in Greensboro hope to change that.

"As a law firm that specializes in representing injured and disabled workers, we can't think of a more worthy cause to put our time and resources behind," said Dan Deuterman, who is a board certified specialist in workers' compensation. "We see every day how families are affected by workplace injuries, both financially and emotionally. And we recognize that the impact of injuries is long lasting. A family's struggles and challenges don't disappear once we obtain a verdict or a settlement or payment of their medical expenses."

The Deuterman Law Group plans several local fund-raisers to spotlight Kids' Chance of North Carolina. Specific details will be announced later. They will also be actively recruiting scholarship applicants by networking with injured workers and other workers' compensation attorneys throughout the states.

In addition, beginning in July, Deuterman Law Group will be selling copies of a Kids' Chance cookbook that benefits the scholarship programs. Copies are $10 and will be available in mid June at Deuterman Law Group in the Law Center Building at 101 S. Elm St., Suite 170 in Greensboro.

Kids' Chance of North Carolina scholarships are available to any student between the ages 16 and 25 whose parent's on-the-job injury or death resulted in a substantial decline in family income. Scholarships in the amount of $4,500 annually may be used to pay for high school, technical school or college tuition, books, housing, meals or transportation. Another goal of Kids' Chance is to prevent students from dropping out of school. So scholarship recipients may also use the money to contribute to the family income.

"Our intent is not to make it so difficult for them," Dealy said. "Our intent is to make it so they can rise above where they are."

In the Irbys case, the Kids' Chance scholarship has done exactly that. "It was a relief," Christine Irby said. "It took some of the pressure off of me and off of her. It was a blessing."

Recently, Kids' Chance of North Carolina awarded a second scholarship to Hannah Anthony of Harmony. Her father, a prison guard, was killed in 1998 after he was hit by the wheels from a tractor-trailer while guarding inmates working on Interstate 77. Hannah begins her final year as a pharmacy student at Campbell University in the fall, and she is interning this summer with Moses Cone.

For more information about Kids' Chance of North Carolina, visit www.kidschancenc.org. Scholarship applications are available from Deuterman Law Group by calling 373-1130 or online at www.deutermanlaw.com

About Kids' Chance
Kids' Chance of North Carolina is part of a national network of 26 scholarship programs for children of workers who were killed or catastrophically injured on the job. The North Carolina organization was formed in 2004 by a cross section of professionals in the workers' compensation community, including lawyers, insurers, employers, and medical and rehabilitation professionals. The nonprofit awards scholarships annually to students between the ages of 16 and 25 whose parent's on-the-job death or injury resulted in a substantial decline in family income.

About Deuterman Law Group

Dan Deuterman received his undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1987. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law, J.D., in 1991 and was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar later that same year. He was certified by the N.C. State Bar Board of Legal Specialization as an expert in workers' compensation in 2001. Last year, Deuterman was admitted to the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Deuterman has earned a distinguished reputation as an expert in the areas of workers' compensation and Social Security disability. He is one of the few board certified specialists in workers' compensation law practicing in North Carolina.

After working for other law firms for more than 12 years, Dan Deuterman and his wife, Dawne, formed The Deuterman Law Group in 2003. They brought with them a carefully selected group of attorneys, paralegals and office staff. Since then the firm has earned an enviable reputation for exceptional expertise, integrity and hard work.

Every year, the firm handles hundreds of workers' compensation, Social Security disability and other cases across North Carolina.

The organization, which Deuterman Law Group supports financially and in other ways, provides scholarships to high school and college students who had a parent killed or catastrophically injured on the job.

Next month, we'll begin selling cookbooks to benefit Kids' Chance at our offices. They're just $10.

And if you know of a student who might be eligible for a scholarship, we have applications. Just visit our Web site or email our PR person at amyjoyn@bellsouth.net and she'll send you the details.

The Daniel Lyndon and Dawne Talbert Deuterman Scholarship will be awarded annually to a student ranked in the top third of his or her college class, who demonstrates financial need and leadership abilities through college involvement and extracurricular activities.

Attorney Dan Deuterman is president of Deuterman Law Group, and his wife, Dawne, is the firm's chief financial officer. She is also president of Legal Promotions, Inc., a marketing consulting company that works with law firms.

"As a family and as a business, we feel strongly about giving back to the community," Dawne Deuterman said. "This scholarship will enable deserving students to attend law school for years to come."

"I owe my success as an attorney to the education I received at UNC-Chapel Hill and later at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law," Dan Deuterman said. "I want other students to be able to enjoy those same educational opportunities that I had."

The Academy, whose membership includes more than 4,000 attorneys dedicated to protecting individual rights in North Carolina, instead has chosen SunTrust as its official bank.

Insurance lobbying groups and big companies, including Duke Energy, Progress Energy and Bank of America, are the major backers of an effort to change the state's Workers' Compensation Act in ways that would severely compromise workers' rights.

Among other things, these groups and corporations supported legislation that would have imposed a 500-week (or approximately 10-year) limit on workers' compensation benefits. Under their plan, workers who are older than 60 could only collect benefits for 260 weeks - or about five years - no matter how debilitating or severe their injuries.

Their efforts are aimed at saving big businesses money at the expense of taxpayers. They seek to transfer the cost of caring for injured workers to taxpayers and the already overburdened federal Social Security system.

*Under their preferred plan, employers could deny a worker's claim if he turns down "employment within his physical limitations," even if that new job pays a much lower wage or is unsuitable for other reasons.

*Their plan would also give employers more unfettered access to patients' medical records, a clear invasion of privacy.

*Employees who refuse to be tested for drugs or alcohol after an accident would automatically be denied workers' comp under the reformers' plan.

The impacts of such changes are wide-ranging, and they could affect every category of employee, from production workers to medical professionals.

This is not just a blue-collar issue. Each year, more than 60,000 North Carolinians with work-related injuries file to cover medical costs and recoup lost wages. Workers collected $1.5 billion in benefits owed them last year.

Small businesses have been deluded into believing that they'll save money if the workers' compensation rules are changed in North Carolina. California reformed its workers' comp system after the election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The value of benefits paid has dropped by 50 percent. But workers' compensation insurance premiums paid by small employers have dropped only 15 percent.

Insurance companies, not small businesses, are profiting from reform.
In regards to cost, N.C. companies pay less for workers' comp insurance and pay lower average claims than businesses in other states.

N.C. companies pay workers' compensation insurance premiums of just $2.32 per $100 of payroll, according to a state-by-state comparison by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. The national average is $2.65 per $100 of payroll. The highest premiums are in California ($6.08 per $100 of payroll) and in Alaska ($4.39 per $100 of payroll).
In addition, a national study conducted in 2004 by the Workers' Compensation Research Institute in Cambridge, Mass., showed that the total cost per workers' comp claim in North Carolina is just $2,373, 9 percent below the median of the all the states studied.

But when compared to other states, North Carolina workers already must wait longer to receive benefits that are owed to them, according to WCRI. The study found that 36 percent of injured workers in North Carolina received their first workers' compensation payment within 21 days of being injured. Backers of reform would have injured workers wait even longer for benefits that are owed them.

As Spainhour read each name, the applicants stood before the justices. Chief Justice Roberts granted the motion, and the attorneys were sworn in by William K. Suter, clerk of the Supreme Court.

Deuterman, who does a lot of appellate work and has argued before the N.C. Supreme Court, said it was fascinating nonetheless to see the U.S. Supreme Court in action. His group watched as two Supreme Court opinions were read. They also sat in on two oral arguments, including a Fourth Amendment case, Georgia v. Randolph. The respondent's attorney in that case was also a UNC graduate.

"In the Fourth Amendment case, all of the justices were actively involved in the arguments, peppering the attorneys with questions," Deuterman said. "It was clear that they take seriously their roles as defenders of the Constitution."