Indiana lawmakers have proposed a bill Monday that would allow workers to choose their own physicians to treat their workplace injury or occupational disease. H.B. 1339 would allow workers to choose their own attending physician and require employers or their insurers to reimburse the chosen health care provider for the treatment of the compensable injury or illness. The bill states…
A bill introduced Wednesday in Illinois would make several changes to the state’s workers compensation code, including introducing protocols for investigating insurer premiums and changing the way cumulative trauma is covered. H.B. 218 would amend the Employer’s Liability Rates Article of the Illinois insurance law, to state that “a premium is excessive if it is likely to produce a profit…
Monsanto and more than a dozen other companies with current or former facilities in the Sauget region are being sued by the estate of a former tradesman alleging his exposure to toxic chemicals led to his death. Patricia Bishop, individually and as special representative of the Estate of Larry Bishop, filed a complaint Dec. 23 in the Madison County Circuit…
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout has begun in health care and senior living facilities across the U.S., and employers in many industries are eagerly awaiting the chance to have their employees vaccinated against the coronavirus. However, employers must balance their desire for a safe workplace with the risks of requiring vaccinations and the potential workers compensation implications if a worker experiences…
An Indiana bill filed Monday would assume that the workers of general contractors or subcontractors performing government-support projects are employees for workers compensation and tax purposes. S.B. 126 would amend state laws to establish a presumption that workers providing labor on government projects are employees unless the contractor or subcontractor can provide proof they are properly classified as an independent…
Lawmakers in Indiana are slated Thursday to consider legislation that would call on several state agencies to study worker misclassification. H.B. 1132 would require the Department of State Revenue, the State Department of Labor, the Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana, and the Department of Workforce Development to report before Sept. 1 and through 2024 to the state’s Interim Study Committee…
Illinois lawmakers on Thursday filed an amendment to extend the presumption of compensability for workers who acquire COVID-19 on the job. House Amendment 1 would modify H.B. 782, which was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in June, to extend the state’s COVID-19 rebuttable presumption, which expired at the end of 2020, to June 30, 2021. The presumption law…
A woman claims she slipped on wet paint in the parking lot at an Alton McDonald’s. Cheryl Snipes filed a complaint Dec. 10 in the Madison County Circuit Court against McDonald’s Corporation, alleging negligence. According to the complaint, Snipes was at the McDonald’s restaurant on Homer Adams Parkway in Alton on March 9. She alleges that as she walked from…
An Advanced Auto Parts store in Belleville is being sued after a customer alleges she fell while walking to the back area of the store. Olivia Burnes-Lacy filed a complaint Dec. 7 in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against Advanced Auto Parts and Alex Doe, alleging premises liability. The plaintiff claims in her suit that she was at the…
Lost in the U.S. launch of the coronavirus vaccine is a fact most don’t know when they roll up their sleeves: In rare cases of serious illness from the shots, the injured are blocked from suing and steered instead to an obscure federal bureaucracy with a record of seldom paying claims. Housed in a nondescript building in a Washington, D.C.,…
