Issue Commentary: Employment Status is Easy as Falling Off a Horse?

Employee Recovers for Idiopathic Fall Under Louisiana’s Positional Risk Doctrine

A Louisiana appellate court recently affirmed a determination by a WCJ that a pharmacy technician’s injuries resulting from a fall at her computer station after she had suffered a one-time...

Fifth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Favoring Former Employers in Toxic Chemical Case

In an unpublished decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court's decision granting summary judgment in favor of two former employers who, according to...

Louisiana High Court Says Employer—Not Injured Employee—Has Right to Choose Pharmacy

Last Thursday, in a split decision, the Supreme Court of Louisiana held that the choice of pharmacy in a workers’ compensation case belongs to the employer, and not the employee...

Lousiana Court Sustains Worker’s West Nile Virus Claim as Accidental Injury

A Louisiana appellate court affirmed, in relevant part, a ruling by a state workers’ compensation judge that a worker sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course...

Louisiana: Prescriptive Period Does Not Commence Until Party Has Knowledge of Cause of Action

Applying 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 Claimant Gets Hit With Forfeiture of Benefits and Stiff Penalties for Misrepresentations

A Louisiana appellate court has affirmed an Order of the state’s Office of Workers’ Compensation that heavily sanctioned a workers’ compensation claimant for fraud in violation of La. R. S....

Compromise and Settlement: May An Employer Include a Penalty Clause to Ward Off Further Vexatious Claims?

Each year I read–or at least scan–more than 1,500 workers’ compensation cases that make the appellate reporter system around the nation. As large as that number sounds, it’s really fewer...

US: Establishing “Substantial Certainty” in Intentional Tort Cases is Difficult

Construing La. Rev. Stat. § 23:1032, which generally provides that workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy of an employee injured within the course and scope of the employment unless the...

Louisiana: Boilermaker’s 39-Day Work Schedule, With One Day Off, Found to Cause Stroke

In Louisiana, when an employee seeks to recover workers’ compensation benefits for a heart-related or perivascular injury, he or she must prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that: (i) The...

Louisiana: Police Officer Fails To Establish Acute Appendicitis Claim Was Connected to Fall at Police Station

A Louisiana appellate court recently affirmed a finding by the Office of Workers’ Compensation that granted an employer police department’s motion for summary judgment regarding a claim filed by a...

Louisiana: Police Sergeant’s Short Trip to Headquarters To Get Cash From Credit Union Was Deviation From Employment; Injuries in Stairwell Not Compensable

A Louisiana appellate court recently affirmed the denial of a claim filed by a police sergeant who sustained injuries when he fell in a stairwell at Police Headquarters following a...