Recent clinical trials have demonstrated that cannabis-derived medications may be safer and more effective than opioids for treating chronic lower back pain—a finding with significant implications for workers’ compensation systems...
Cannabis-Derived Medications for Chronic Back Pain: Implications for Workers’ Compensation Cannabis-Derived Medications for Chronic Back Pain: Implications for Workers’ CompensationTexas Court Applies New Jurisdictional Framework in Workplace Violence Case In the long-running national debate over whether courts or workers’ compensation agencies should decide coverage disputes, Texas has now drawn...
Issue Commentary: What Forum Decides Exclusivity? Issue Commentary: What Forum Decides Exclusivity?When Retaliatory Discharge First Became Judicially Recognized Before 1973, in many states that followed the common-law doctrine of employment-at-will, a worker fired for asserting the right to workers’ compensation benefits...
Throwback Thursday: Frampton v. Central Indiana Gas Co. (Ind. 1973) Throwback Thursday: Frampton v. Central Indiana Gas Co. (Ind. 1973)Pre-Existing Conditions, Aggravation, and the Enduring Reach of Larson’s Rule In the evolving history of American workers’ compensation, few doctrines have proven more enduring—or more contentious—than the rule that employers...
Throwback Thursday: Cowart v. Pearl River Tung Co. (Miss. 1953) Throwback Thursday: Cowart v. Pearl River Tung Co. (Miss. 1953)When Cancer Meets Causation: Wrestling with Medical Mystery in 1951 In workers’ compensation law, few challenges prove more vexing than establishing causation when the medical community itself admits ignorance about...
Throwback Thursday: Boyd v. Young (1951) Throwback Thursday: Boyd v. Young (1951)A Horseplay Case That Shaped Utah’s Workers’ Compensation Doctrine In Prows v. Industrial Commission of Utah, 610 P.2d 1362 (Utah 1980), the Supreme Court of Utah was presented with a...
Throwback Thursday: Prows v. Industrial Commission of Utah (1980) Throwback Thursday: Prows v. Industrial Commission of Utah (1980)Tools, Timing, and Termination In Nails v. Market Tire Co., 29 Md. App. 154, 347 A.2d 564 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1975), the Maryland Court of Special Appeals addressed a...
Throwback Thursday: Nails v. Market Tire Co. (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1975) Throwback Thursday: Nails v. Market Tire Co. (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1975)Lent Employees and the Boundary of the Employment Relationship In the long and sometimes tangled history of American workers’ compensation law, few issues generate more uncertainty—and more litigation—than lent employment....
Throwback Thursday: Kowalski v. Shell Oil Co. (Cal. 1979) Throwback Thursday: Kowalski v. Shell Oil Co. (Cal. 1979)Imported Quarrels and the Boundaries of Employment Risk In Bridges v. Elite, Inc., 212 S.C. 514, 48 S.E.2d 497 (S.C. 1948), the Supreme Court of South Carolina reversed a decision...
Throwback Thursday: Bridges v. Elite, Inc. (S.C. 1948) Throwback Thursday: Bridges v. Elite, Inc. (S.C. 1948)Refusal of Life-Saving Treatment Within Workers’ Compensation Context In Martin v. Industrial Accident Commission, 147 Cal. App. 2d 137, 304 P.2d 828 (Cal. Ct. App. 1956), the California Court of...
Throwback Thursday: Martin v. Industrial Accident Commission (1956) Throwback Thursday: Martin v. Industrial Accident Commission (1956)The Rise of the Odd-Lot Doctrine In the world of workers’ compensation, some of the most influential doctrines arise not from statutory overhaul or regulatory edict, but from judicial insight...
Throwback Thursday: Lee v. Minneapolis Street Railway Co. (1950) Throwback Thursday: Lee v. Minneapolis Street Railway Co. (1950)Introduction In 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in O’Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc., 340 U.S. 504, 71 S.Ct. 470, 95 L.Ed.483 (1951). The case involved a claim...
Throwback Thursday: O’Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc. (U.S., 1951) Throwback Thursday: O’Leary v. Brown-Pacific-Maxon, Inc. (U.S., 1951)