Administrative Litigation Specialist Attorney | Judgment Revoking the Disposition Denying Pneumoconiosis Survivors' Benefits and Funeral Expenses

The client who sought out an administrative litigation specialist attorney and requested a consultation was the spouse of a husband who had developed pneumoconiosis after working in a coal mine for a long time.

The client's husband had received pneumoconiosis disability determinations several times over a number of years and had continuously received management and treatment for the aftereffects of pneumoconiosis.

One day, the client's husband visited a hospital due to sudden respiratory difficulty, and the physician issued an opinion that “the lung function had been severely damaged due to pneumoconiosis.”

While wearing an oxygen respirator, the husband repeatedly improved and worsened, and he managed to undergo an examination, but immediately after the examination his respiratory difficulty abruptly worsened, and he died after vomiting blood.

The client, judging that her husband's death was directly related to his work, applied to the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service for the pneumoconiosis survivors' pension and funeral expenses, but the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service issued a disposition denying payment on the ground that “there was insufficient medical basis to acknowledge a substantial causal relationship between the death of the client's husband and his work.”

Accordingly, the client wished to file a lawsuit, with the assistance of an administrative litigation specialist attorney at Daeryun Law Firm, to revoke the disposition denying the payment of survivors' benefits and funeral expenses.

Pneumoconiosis is one of the occupational diseases in which fibrotic changes occur in the lungs, causing respiratory difficulty and a decline in lung function, when dust (fine stone powder or coal powder) is continuously inhaled in coal mining, quarrying, stone processing, and the like.

Pneumoconiosis is difficult to cure, and as time passes it can cause complications such as respiratory failure and pulmonary heart disease, which may lead to death.

An administrative appeal is a procedure for requesting, within an administrative agency, the correction or revocation of an unlawful or unjust disposition by an administrative agency, while 🔗administrative litigation is a lawsuit filed to contest the result of an administrative appeal or to directly seek a judgment from the judiciary.

The client had already filed an administrative appeal once, but it was dismissed, so she wished to seek a judgment from the court through administrative litigation.

In a situation such as that of the client, proving the causal relationship between the pneumoconiosis and the work is the most important thing.

The administrative litigation specialist attorney at Daeryun Law Firm assisted with the case as follows.

· Comprehensive re-review of factual and medical records

Secured the past pneumoconiosis disability determinations and periodic examination records to emphasize the continuity of the occupational disease

· Conducting a specialist medical appraisal

Additionally submitted a pathology appraisal report stating that the death from respiratory difficulty and pulmonary hemorrhage was directly related to pneumoconiosis

· Establishing a legal strategy

On the basis of Articles 91-2, 91-4, and 91-10 of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, systematically argued the career of engaging in dust work, the history of pneumoconiosis disability, and the causal relationship of the cause of death

· Representation throughout the entire trial process

Took full charge of the entire process of filing the administrative litigation, preparing the litigation briefs, submitting evidence, and presenting oral argument

· Protection of the rights and interests of the surviving family

Reduced the psychological and physical burden that the surviving family would experience in preparing the legal arguments and evidence on their own