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Jul 21, 2026

Utah High Court: Suspension, Not Dismissal, Is the Only Sanction for Obstructing an IME

Statute’s Specific Remedy Overrides Rule 37 Discovery Sanctions, Even After Three Failed Medical Exams The Supreme Court of Utah has held that dismissal is not an available sanction for a...

Utah High Court: Suspension, Not Dismissal, Is the Only Sanction for Obstructing an IME Utah High Court: Suspension, Not Dismissal, Is the Only Sanction for Obstructing an IME
Jul 16, 2026

Personal Comfort Doctrine Reaches a Formal, Unpaid Break

PA Court Finds a 15-Minute Break’s Brevity Outweighs Its Formality The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently affirmed an award of workers’ compensation benefits to a pharmacy technician struck by a...

Personal Comfort Doctrine Reaches a Formal, Unpaid Break Personal Comfort Doctrine Reaches a Formal, Unpaid Break
Jul 14, 2026

Trucker’s Retaliation Claim Runs Aground in His Own Hay Field

Idaho Federal Court Finds Surveillance and a Full-Duty Release Defeat Workers' Comp Retaliatory Discharge Claim The U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho recently granted summary judgment for a...

Trucker’s Retaliation Claim Runs Aground in His Own Hay Field Trucker’s Retaliation Claim Runs Aground in His Own Hay Field
Jul 13, 2026

FL High Court Rejects Motive Requirement for Workplace Assault Claims

Risk-Exposure Evidence Alone Can Establish the Causal Link, Justices Hold Last Thursday, In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Muñiz, the Supreme Court of Florida held that a workplace assault...

FL High Court Rejects Motive Requirement for Workplace Assault Claims FL High Court Rejects Motive Requirement for Workplace Assault Claims

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Mar 24, 2020

TX Deputy’s Fatal Injuries While Traveling Home in Patrol Car Were Compensable

Reversing a lower appellate court, the Supreme Court of Texas held that because the summary judgment evidence established that a deputy sheriff — who died in a vehicular accident involving...

TX Deputy’s Fatal Injuries While Traveling Home in Patrol Car Were Compensable TX Deputy’s Fatal Injuries While Traveling Home in Patrol Car Were Compensable
Mar 23, 2020

SD Supreme Court Stresses Fault and Negligence Have No Role in Workers’ Comp Disputes

Cautioning that the analysis of the case by the state’s Department of Labor had come “perilously close to the prohibited concept of contributory negligence or fault,” the Supreme Court of...

SD Supreme Court Stresses Fault and Negligence Have No Role in Workers’ Comp Disputes SD Supreme Court Stresses Fault and Negligence Have No Role in Workers’ Comp Disputes
Mar 20, 2020

Personal Deviation Sinks Mississippi Salesman’s Claim

Construing the “dual purpose” rule, as utilized in Mississippi, the state’s Court of Appeals, in a deeply divided (6-4) decision, affirmed a decision of the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission that...

Personal Deviation Sinks Mississippi Salesman’s Claim Personal Deviation Sinks Mississippi Salesman’s Claim
Mar 19, 2020

NY Employer’s Quick Firing After Employee’s Injury Was Retaliatory

A New York appellate court affirmed a determination by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that an employer violated N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 120 — the state’s anti-retaliation statute —...

NY Employer’s Quick Firing After Employee’s Injury Was Retaliatory NY Employer’s Quick Firing After Employee’s Injury Was Retaliatory
Mar 18, 2020

NY Court Affirms Board’s Decision to Require Weaning From Opioids

A New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that directed that a claimant be weaned from his narcotic prescription medications in accordance with the...

NY Court Affirms Board’s Decision to Require Weaning From Opioids NY Court Affirms Board’s Decision to Require Weaning From Opioids
Mar 17, 2020

Jury-Rigged “Safety” Mechanism Subjects NJ Employer to Substantially Certain Tort Claim

Allegations that a New Jersey company maintained an unwritten policy of avoiding the use of a lock-out, tag-out (“LOTO”) safety feature on a machine because doing so would require a...

Jury-Rigged “Safety” Mechanism Subjects NJ Employer to Substantially Certain Tort Claim Jury-Rigged “Safety” Mechanism Subjects NJ Employer to Substantially Certain Tort Claim
Mar 16, 2020

Settlement of Comp Claim Bars Subsequent Civil Action Against Employer on “Third Party Attack” Theory

Where a residential counselor at a Pennsylvania inpatient psychiatric facility sought and successfully secured a $40,000 settlement from her employer in a workers’ compensation proceeding in connection with injuries she...

Settlement of Comp Claim Bars Subsequent Civil Action Against Employer on “Third Party Attack” Theory Settlement of Comp Claim Bars Subsequent Civil Action Against Employer on “Third Party Attack” Theory
Mar 13, 2020

Failure to Wear Seatbelt Proves Fatal to Virginia Driver’s Claim

Va. Code § 65.2-306(A)(4) bars workers’ compensation claims for injuries that, inter alia, result from a claimant’s willful misconduct in refusing “to perform a duty required by statute.” In that...

Failure to Wear Seatbelt Proves Fatal to Virginia Driver’s Claim Failure to Wear Seatbelt Proves Fatal to Virginia Driver’s Claim
Mar 12, 2020

Virginia Court Affirms Award for Brown Recluse Spider Bite

A Virginia appellate court recently affirmed a determination by the state’s Commission which, in a divided decision, had awarded workers’ compensation benefits to an administrative assistant who contended she was...

Virginia Court Affirms Award for Brown Recluse Spider Bite Virginia Court Affirms Award for Brown Recluse Spider Bite
Mar 11, 2020

Georgia Husband/Wife Driving Team Were Employees: Wife’s Tort Action Barred by Exclusivity

Stressing that under Georgia law, it is the right to control, not the actual exercise of that control, which determines whether the work relationship is one of employer and employee,...

Georgia Husband/Wife Driving Team Were Employees: Wife’s Tort Action Barred by Exclusivity Georgia Husband/Wife Driving Team Were Employees: Wife’s Tort Action Barred by Exclusivity
Mar 10, 2020

For Workers’ Comp World, Coronavirus is a Real “Snake in the Grass”

The world is transfixed by a new enemy: the coronavirus. I just received an email from my bank reminding me how I can use my accounts’ electronic features so as...

For Workers’ Comp World, Coronavirus is a Real “Snake in the Grass” For Workers’ Comp World, Coronavirus is a Real “Snake in the Grass”
Mar 9, 2020

What Goes Around Comes Around: IRS Employee May Not Recover for Stress Associated with Pursuing Injury Claim

In a case replete with irony, as many of us scurry around gathering the plethora of information required to file our annual individual income tax returns, a federal district court...

What Goes Around Comes Around: IRS Employee May Not Recover for Stress Associated with Pursuing Injury Claim What Goes Around Comes Around: IRS Employee May Not Recover for Stress Associated with Pursuing Injury Claim

New Comments

  • ramivou: They hid behind a flawed "reading" of this statute for a decade. I am glad the SC finally put an end to the misconception that it was a "first six months only" filing requirement, rather than an ongoing responsibility.
  • trob: Thanks for the query. New York's going and coming doctrine is similar to that in place in the majority of jurisdictions. That is to say that for employees with a fixed place of work and who are on a relatively consistent work schedule, the commute to and from the residence is outside the course and scope of the employment. Often overlooked is the fact that the employee must generally have a fixed ...
  • ramivou: Is coming and going covered in NY?
  • trob: Excellent question. My thought is that the employer was following what it assumed was the typical practice of seeking to protect its "subrogation" interest in state court; in virtually all jurisdictions, the state trial courts are where subrogation issues are litigated. What differed here, of course, was that it wasn't a standard subrogation case, i.e., the employee's work-related injury wasn't ca...
  • ramivou: Why didn't they file it with the state Commission instead?
  • Thomas A. Robinson: I suspect that ACME could seek contractual indemnity, as you note, either from the staffing agency or its carrier. The goal of the Board or agency generally is to see to the proper award of benefits for compensable injuries. Allowing the "aggrieved" parties to sort it out later is completely consistent with the overall theory of workers' compensation. Many thanks for the comment. Best wishes.
  • Barry Stinson: I wonder if Acme's insurer could seek contractural indemnity from Variety's insurer outside of the WC system.
  • Michael C. Duff: The conceptual distinction is between joint causation and presumptive single causation.
  • Thomas A. Robinson: Sorry, I don't/can't provide legal advice. Best wishes, however.
  • Ken Smith: What can I do when my attorney blows my case with an incomplete RB89