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Aug 20, 2026

Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another Day

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 Day
Aug 20, 2026

Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another Day

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 Day
Aug 19, 2026

VA: One Basket, Two Injuries—and Only One Compensable Accident

In *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 Accident
Aug 17, 2026

UT Supreme Court Affirms PTD Award—and Rejects Employer’s Claim to Employee’s Debt-Collection Settlement

In 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 Settlement

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Oct 9, 2019

NY Claim Denied Where Carrier Was Prejudiced by Two-Year Delay in Claim Filing

A New York appellate court recently affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board denying a claim for failure to provide proper notice to the workers’ compensation carrier where...

NY Claim Denied Where Carrier Was Prejudiced by Two-Year Delay in Claim Filing NY Claim Denied Where Carrier Was Prejudiced by Two-Year Delay in Claim Filing
Oct 8, 2019

Inadmissible Drug Test May Not Be Used to Show Employee Fraud in Louisiana

In Louisiana, a positive drug test following a work-related injury may not be offered as evidence that the injured worker’s injuries were the result of intoxication at the time of...

Inadmissible Drug Test May Not Be Used to Show Employee Fraud in Louisiana Inadmissible Drug Test May Not Be Used to Show Employee Fraud in Louisiana
Oct 7, 2019

SC Commissioner Should Have Recused Herself from Comp Case

The Supreme Court of South Carolina, reversing a decision by the state’s Court of Appeals, held that a Commissioner should have recused herself from a workers’ compensation dispute where the...

SC Commissioner Should Have Recused Herself from Comp Case SC Commissioner Should Have Recused Herself from Comp Case
Oct 3, 2019

Illinois Court Says Trial Court Erred in Converting PPD Award to Lump Sum

An Illinois trial court’s finding that the entire amount of an arbitrator’s award—stated as a weekly amount times a number of weeks—came due when the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission adopted...

Illinois Court Says Trial Court Erred in Converting PPD Award to Lump Sum Illinois Court Says Trial Court Erred in Converting PPD Award to Lump Sum
Oct 2, 2019

Mississippi Employer Fails to Rebut Presumption That Employee’s Unwitnessed Death was Work-Related

Yesterday (October 1, 2019), the Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed an award of death benefits to the surviving dependents of a hospital material-management technician who was found dead in...

Mississippi Employer Fails to Rebut Presumption That Employee’s Unwitnessed Death was Work-Related Mississippi Employer Fails to Rebut Presumption That Employee’s Unwitnessed Death was Work-Related
Oct 1, 2019

NY Court Affirms Denial of Death Benefits Following Police Officer’s Apparent Suicide

A New York appellate court recently affirmed the findings of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that a police officer’s death, from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound was not a line-of-duty...

NY Court Affirms Denial of Death Benefits Following Police Officer’s Apparent Suicide NY Court Affirms Denial of Death Benefits Following Police Officer’s Apparent Suicide
Sep 30, 2019

NY Board Errs in Apportioning Disability to Preexisting Multiple Sclerosis

Where a worker’s preexisting multiple sclerosis (“MS”) was non-disabling and undiagnosed at the time he suffered a slip and fall injury on ice, striking his head on the pavement, it...

NY Board Errs in Apportioning Disability to Preexisting Multiple Sclerosis NY Board Errs in Apportioning Disability to Preexisting Multiple Sclerosis
Sep 27, 2019

NY Board’s $500 Penalty Against Claimant’s Attorney Affirmed

A $500 penalty assessed against a claimant’s attorney by New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board was affirmed by a state appellate court [Matter of Curcio v Sherwood 370 Mgt., LLC, 2019...

NY Board’s $500 Penalty Against Claimant’s Attorney Affirmed NY Board’s $500 Penalty Against Claimant’s Attorney Affirmed
Sep 26, 2019

Federal Court Nixes SD Employee’s Attempted Use of Dual Capacity Doctrine

A products liability/strict liability and negligence action filed by an employee against an employer based upon the employer’s earlier merger with the firm that had manufactured the allegedly defective product...

Federal Court Nixes SD Employee’s Attempted Use of Dual Capacity Doctrine Federal Court Nixes SD Employee’s Attempted Use of Dual Capacity Doctrine
Sep 24, 2019

NC Auto Insurer Need Not Defend Wrongful Death Action

Defendant Driver Was “Borrowed” Co-Employee and Immune From Suit. In a declaratory judgment action to determine if an automobile liability insurance company was required to defend its insured against an...

NC Auto Insurer Need Not Defend Wrongful Death Action NC Auto Insurer Need Not Defend Wrongful Death Action
Sep 23, 2019

Washington Special Employers May Not Be So “Special” After All

Court Says Issue of Fact Existed as to Whether Worker “Consented” to Special Employment Status. In a decision that could alter the way some labor brokers manage their businesses within...

Washington Special Employers May Not Be So “Special” After All Washington Special Employers May Not Be So “Special” After All
Sep 20, 2019

Ohio Claimant’s Vision Loss May Not Be Judged Merely by Snellen Fraction Differentials

In order to establish entitlement to an award for permanent partial loss of sight under Ohio Rev. Code § 4123.57(B), a workers’ compensation claimant must submit medical evidence showing the...

Ohio Claimant’s Vision Loss May Not Be Judged Merely by Snellen Fraction Differentials Ohio Claimant’s Vision Loss May Not Be Judged Merely by Snellen Fraction Differentials

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