Iowa High Court Clarifies Second Injury Fund Liability

Opinion Mondays: States Shouldn’t Treat PTD Awards as Estate Planning Tools

Iowa Commutation Order Allows for Substantial Inheritable Estate Illustrating just how far some states have moved away from the original workers’ compensation principle that indemnity benefits are not an inheritable...

$7 Million Verdict Against Iowa Co-Employee Cannot Stand

Construing Iowa’s co-employee immunity statute, Iowa Code § 85.20(2), which allows a co-employee to be sued for injuries caused by the co-employee’s “gross negligence amounting to such lack of care...

Trainee/Apprentice May Not Sue Independent Contractor/Truck Driver

Independent Contractor/Driver Was Joint Employer Under Iowa Law Construing Iowa law, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a federal district court’s decision granting summary judgment to an independent...

Iowa High Court Says Discovery Rule Applies to Single Trauma Injuries

In 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 Sole Proprietor Working Alongside Others is Still Employer For Purposes of Workers’ Compensation Exclusive Remedy Defense

An Iowa sole proprietor, who worked alongside his employees, was nevertheless still an employer—and not a co-employee—for purposes of the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Act, held a state appellate court [Mullen...

Iowa Court Affirms Rejection of “Uncontradicted” Expert Testimony

An commissioner’s award of permanent total disability benefits to an HVAC employee who claimed he suffered an electric shock while servicing a unit at a customer’s residence was supported by...

8th Circuit: Insurer’s Refusal to Pay for Injured Undocumented Worker’s Groceries and Cable TV Not Bad-Faith Denial of Insurance Benefits

In an action alleging bad-faith denial of insurance benefits filed by an undocumented worker who sustained severe injuries in a work-related accident, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, construing Iowa...

Iowa: Surveillance Videos of Injured Workers Not Protected by Work Product Privilege

A divided Court of Appeals of Iowa, in Iowa Insurance Institute v. Core Group of the Iowa Association for Justice, 2014 Iowa App. LEXIS 1067 (Oct. 29, 2014), has held...

Annual Service Bonus is Part of Iowa Employee’s Average Weekly Wage Computation

Where the only conditions precedent to receiving an annual bonus was simply being an “active employee on November 30th of the year the bonus was paid and the condition precedent...

Iowa: Undocumented Workers Are Protected by the Workers’ Compensation Act

The Supreme Court of Iowa recently held in relevant part that undocumented workers are not excluded from the Workers’ Compensation Act’s definition of “employee” and that the contract of employment...

Iowa: Injuries Sustained in Janitor’s Idiopathic Fall Found Compensable

Reversing a decision by a state trial court that had, in turn, reversed an award of workers’ compensation benefits in favor of a seventy-nine-year-old part-time janitor who had suffered an...