LA Fourth Circuit, 3–2, Holds Dump-Truck Driver Paid 25% of Truck Earnings Was an Employee Despite 1099; Dissent Invokes Manifest-Error Review The Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit recently reversed...
Louisiana Court: Paid a Percentage, Still an Employee Louisiana Court: Paid a Percentage, Still an EmployeeKY Supreme Court Holds the Statutory Presumption Against Recovery for Intoxicating Substances Does Not Apply to Alcohol The Kentucky Supreme Court has affirmed benefits for a traffic flagger who was...
Alcohol Falls Outside KY’s Presumption of Causation Alcohol Falls Outside KY’s Presumption of CausationFL First DCA Holds Harlem’s Narrow “Heart Disease” Definition Does Not Bar a Firefighter’s Arrhythmia Claim Under the Heart-Lung Presumption Florida’s First District Court of Appeal has affirmed an award...
The Heart Has Wiring, Too The Heart Has Wiring, TooOregon Court Applies New Claim-Closure Requirements to Case Pending on Judicial Review The Oregon Court of Appeals has held that 2022 amendments limiting retroactive “medically stationary” determinations apply to a...
“Closed” Under Old Rules, Reprocessed Under New “Closed” Under Old Rules, Reprocessed Under NewPart of SSDI’s Fiscal Weakness Tied to Cost Shifting from Workers’ Compensation In an important recent paper, Professor John Burton and his colleague, Steve Guo, argue that significant fiscal improvements...
Does Long-Term Strength of the SSDI Trust Fund Depend Upon Changes to State Workers’ Comp Programs? Does Long-Term Strength of the SSDI Trust Fund Depend Upon Changes to State Workers’ Comp Programs?The 2013 Oklahoma workers’ compensation “reforms” 2013 Senate Bill 1062 which, among other things, created the state’s uber-controversial “Opt Out” arrangement, in which employers can jettison the entire state-run system...
Oklahoma Supreme Court Lands Yet Another Body Blow to State’s Controversial Opt Out Law Oklahoma Supreme Court Lands Yet Another Body Blow to State’s Controversial Opt Out LawA bill [S. 2506] introduced on February 4, 2016, by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), would, if passed into law, appear to invalidate a core provision found in most Texas workers’...
Leahy Bill in U.S. Senate Could Kill Key Provision in Texas Nonsubscriber ERISA Plans Leahy Bill in U.S. Senate Could Kill Key Provision in Texas Nonsubscriber ERISA PlansOn March 11, 2016, Virginia governor McAuliffe signed into law a bill extending the state’s narrow presumption of compensability [Va. Code Ann. § 65.2–105] to cover most claims where the...
Virginia Legislature Instructs Appellate Court: Deceased Employees Really Are “Physically Unable to Testify” Virginia Legislature Instructs Appellate Court: Deceased Employees Really Are “Physically Unable to Testify”As I reported on Wednesday, in Torres v. Seaboard Foods, LLC, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma struck down a provision in the state’s workers’ compensation law that disqualifies a claimant...
Does Torres Signal How OK High Court Will Decide Constitutionality of Opt Out? Does Torres Signal How OK High Court Will Decide Constitutionality of Opt Out?In Recent “Comp” Decisions (the other from Commission), Oklahoma Legislature Is “0 for 2” A provision in Okla. Stat. tit. 85A, § 2(14) that disqualifies a claimant from recovering for...
Oklahoma High Court Strikes Down State’s 180-Day Cumulative Trauma Employment Rule Oklahoma High Court Strikes Down State’s 180-Day Cumulative Trauma Employment RuleEqual Treatment Under the State’s Dual System is “a Water Mirage” This afternoon (Feb. 26, 2016), in a lengthy Commission Order, the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission found that Sections 203...
Oklahoma Commission Strikes Down State’s Opt Out Law Oklahoma Commission Strikes Down State’s Opt Out LawAn Indiana jury was within its province as factfinder in returning a verdict for more than $400,000 in compensatory and punitive damages against a former employer in a retaliatory discharge...
Facebook® Plays Role in Indiana $400,000 Verdict for Retaliatory Discharge Facebook® Plays Role in Indiana $400,000 Verdict for Retaliatory DischargeA mother’s wrongful death action against her son’s employer was not barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act (“Act”) where the undisputed facts clearly showed...
Georgia Mother May Sue Deceased Son’s Employer and Staffing Company Where Co-Worker Murderer May Have been Negligently Hired Georgia Mother May Sue Deceased Son’s Employer and Staffing Company Where Co-Worker Murderer May Have been Negligently HiredWhere a father and son were co-employees working at an excavation site and the son was struck in the head with the bucket of a track hoe—the blow causing serious...
Wyoming Father May Sue Employer For Anguish Related to Co-employee Son’s Death Wyoming Father May Sue Employer For Anguish Related to Co-employee Son’s DeathIn what at first blush might appear as a counter-intuitive ruling, an Illinois appellate court has held that a flight attendant who injured her knee on a flight from Denver...
Illinois Court Says Flight Attendant is Not a Traveling Employee While “Commuting” Illinois Court Says Flight Attendant is Not a Traveling Employee While “Commuting”I read with great interest Bob Wilson’s post yesterday signaling that the Tennessee Opt Out “initiative” may be DOA this year. Indeed, I’d been checking Bill Tracking Reports since the...
2016 Opt Out Legislation: Is it as “Inevitable” as Some Have Hoped/Feared? 2016 Opt Out Legislation: Is it as “Inevitable” as Some Have Hoped/Feared?
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