Driscoll Agrees with the Larson Standard, Then Affirms Without Needing It The Iowa Court of Appeals has affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a city employee who developed...
Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another Day Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another DayDriscoll Agrees with the Larson Standard, Then Affirms Without Needing It The Iowa Court of Appeals has affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a city employee who developed...
Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another Day Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another DayIn *Sairafianpour v. Loudoun County Public Schools*, 2026 Va. App. LEXIS 430 (Aug. 11, 2026), the Court of Appeals of Virginia affirmed a Workers’ Compensation Commission decision awarding medical benefits...
VA: One Basket, Two Injuries—and Only One Compensable Accident VA: One Basket, Two Injuries—and Only One Compensable AccidentIn Granite School District v. Young, 2026 UT 29, 2026 Utah LEXIS 113 (Aug. 13, 2026), the Utah Supreme Court affirmed an award of permanent total disability benefits to a...
UT Supreme Court Affirms PTD Award—and Rejects Employer’s Claim to Employee’s Debt-Collection Settlement UT Supreme Court Affirms PTD Award—and Rejects Employer’s Claim to Employee’s Debt-Collection SettlementAn employer need not accommodate a New Mexico employee’s use of medical marijuana, even when that use is sanctioned under the state’s Compassionate Use Act (“CUA”), held a federal district...
New Mexico Employer Need Not Accommodate Medical Marijuana Use New Mexico Employer Need Not Accommodate Medical Marijuana UseThat an office worker enjoyed walking did not transform her trip to the post office during the workday into recreational activity, held an Oregon appellate court recently in Sedgwick Claims...
Oregon Court Says Walking to Post Office Isn’t “Recreational” Just Because Employee Enjoyed the Activity Oregon Court Says Walking to Post Office Isn’t “Recreational” Just Because Employee Enjoyed the ActivityApplying the firefighter’s rule, a specialized assumption of risk doctrine under which, in its most classic form, a person who starts a fire is said to owe no duty of...
California Court Uses Firefighter’s Rule to Bar Negligence Action By UPS Driver California Court Uses Firefighter’s Rule to Bar Negligence Action By UPS DriverA Nebraska appellate court, in Yost v. Davita, Inc., 23 Neb. App. 482, 2015 Neb. App. LEXIS 204 (Dec. 29, 2015), affirmed a compensation court’s decision that an employer was...
Nebraska Court: Injured Employee Failed to Establish Spinal Cord Stimulator Was Reasonable and Necessary Nebraska Court: Injured Employee Failed to Establish Spinal Cord Stimulator Was Reasonable and NecessaryIn a short—yet stinging—Order issued late yesterday [December 22, 2015], the Supreme Court of Florida declined to accept jurisdiction and accordingly denied a petition for review that had been filed...
Florida Supreme Court Delivers Coup de Gras to Padgett Florida Supreme Court Delivers Coup de Gras to PadgettIn Baker v. Bridgestone/Firestone, 2015 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 103 (Dec. 18, 2015), the Supreme Court of Iowa recently held that the discovery rule in workers’ compensation law applies not only...
Iowa High Court Says Discovery Rule Applies to Single Trauma Injuries Iowa High Court Says Discovery Rule Applies to Single Trauma InjuriesApplying the “discovery rule” [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 126.05], pursuant to which the prescription period may be suspended where the cause of action is not known or reasonably...
Louisiana: Prescriptive Period Does Not Commence Until Party Has Knowledge of Cause of Action Louisiana: Prescriptive Period Does Not Commence Until Party Has Knowledge of Cause of ActionOverruling Dickens v. Pizza Co., Inc., 266 Kan. 1066, 1071, 974 P.2d 601 (1999), which had adopted an exception to the general rule allowing reduction in workers’ compensation benefits where...
Amendments to Social Security Act in 2000 Do Not Trump Kansas Offset Statute Amendments to Social Security Act in 2000 Do Not Trump Kansas Offset StatuteA police officer, who injured his back as he lifted his “duty bag” to place it in his personal vehicle prior to leaving his home for work sustained an injury...
Illinois Police Officer’s Back Injury Lifting Duty Bag at Home Found Compensable Illinois Police Officer’s Back Injury Lifting Duty Bag at Home Found CompensableDid Intermediate Appellate Court Abide by Supreme Court’s Remand Instructions? In a case that has ricocheted from a Washington state trial court to an intermediate appellate court and from that appellate court...
Washington Appellate Court Again Says “Tasered Trooper’s” Tort Action Not Barred by Exclusive Remedy Defense Washington Appellate Court Again Says “Tasered Trooper’s” Tort Action Not Barred by Exclusive Remedy DefenseThe widow of a worker who was diagnosed with mesothelioma some 40 years after his exposure to asbestos may not sue the former employer to recover damages since her exclusive...
Widow of Illinois Mesothelioma Victim Finds Herself with Catch–22 Widow of Illinois Mesothelioma Victim Finds Herself with Catch–22Original Workers’ Comp Scheme: Equal Treatment of All Injured Employees Within a State In Orwell’s classic allegorical work, Animal Farm, Snowball and Napoleon, recognizing the horrors of the status quo,...
Orwellian Equality: Oklahoma’s Controversial Workers’ Comp Opt Out Legislation Orwellian Equality: Oklahoma’s Controversial Workers’ Comp Opt Out Legislation
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