With No Jobs at Home, Some Americans Look Overseas

Overseas Job Seekers Beware!

Does the Philosophy "It is easier to ask Forgiveness, than Permission!" have any business in the way Insurance Carries service their Claimants accounts? If you insure the disabled from our war efforts, under the Defense Base Act (DBA), I say NO!

ESIS Incorporated, a division of ACE Insurance Company does this as Standard Operating Procedure. They will either drop your benefits at their leisure, without notice, or explanation; or drastically reduce your benefits. Then when you finally get the forms they provided to the Department of Labor(DOL), "Information Copy," it is weeks after the benefits were affected. If your benefits are terminated, it is over a frivolous unverifiable assumption. Do they have to provide evidence first and get approval before the termination of benefits? NO, they just do it! If you prove their assumption wrong, they won't change it. ESIS Inc. makes you take them to court, through Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Review Process. My ALJ review took three years!

Then when you win your ALJ case, they use another entity to conduct a job survey to find the average wage for positions you qualify for in your area. ESIS Inc. takes this survey to fix your wage-earning capacity the same way the terminated benefits, behind closed doors, in secrecy, and without approval. Positions that you may never have seen your entire life and never would have qualified for, let alone would have been able to perform. But they said you could do it, that's that, and as a result only have to pay 2/3's the difference, drastically reducing your benefits. In my case my benefits dropped almost 2/3's.

Even though the DBA specifically allows for the introduction of evidence by the Claimant, ESIS doesn't provide you the opportunity. They make the changes and provide the DOL an Information Copy. The Act, 33 U.S.C § 908(h) places the responsibility of the establishment of the Claimants wage-earning capacity in the hands of the Deputy Commissioner, not the Insurance carrier, "....the deputy commissioner may, in the interest of justice, fix such wage-earning capacity as shall be reasonable." NOTE: Is there any Justice in what ESIS Inc., their Law Firm, or ACE Insurance Companies are doing?

To get back your benefits, the Regional office of the DOL doesn't feel they power to order them back, so another ALJ Review. All along who is expected to pay for all these legal fees, the claimant, because the DOL doesn't compensate Lawyers enough to make it worth their while. The Defense Base Act is a sub set of the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901–950. If you live in an area with no Harbors or Longshoremen, there are no lawyers in your area to help. So, you either don't fight or do it Pro Se (Represent Yourself).

If you agree with me, then send a resounding statement by not using ESIS Incorporated or any ACE Insurance Company subsidiary, when looking for an oversea position check to see who your prospecti

Frederick C. Howard Jr. of NE 4:05PM March 21, 2012