Indiana had 21 work-related deaths on farms deaths last year, the fewest number of documented cases since 2013, Purdue University announced on Sept. 22. Three of the victims were children under the age of 5, while 11 were 60 or older, Purdue’s Agricultural Safety and Health Program announced. “Every one of these lives mattered to someone. Each one was an…
Employers nationwide are following the legislative push to accept COVID-19 claims by presumption in workers compensation, changes that aren’t necessarily guaranteeing that such infectious disease claims will be greenlighted but instead promise a surge in litigation and confusion, experts say. Given the new laws’ many nuances, employers are “worried about staying on top” of the presumption trend, said Ralph Touch,…
The exclusivity provisions of the Illinois Workers Compensation Act do not bar a worker’s claims for statutory damages for violating her rights under a state biometric privacy law, an appellate court held Friday. In McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park LLC, the Illinois Court of Appeals, Fifth District unanimously answered that a class of workers could proceed with their claims of…
The Supreme Court of Illinois on Thursday ruled a chef’s knee injury, suffered as he knelt to look for a tray of carrots, was compensable, reversing several earlier court decisions that in part found the injury to not be work-related. In 2014, sous chef Kevin McAllister was working at Chicago’s North Pond restaurant setting up for his shift when another…
A group of industry associations, medical groups and safety organizations are urging the U.S. House of Representatives to hold hearings about potential workplace safety impacts if marijuana is federally decriminalized. The National Safety Council and 21 other groups sent a letter to the House on Wednesday over concerns that the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019, also known…
A teacher at Chicago State University said his workers’ compensation claim was denied after he was attacked by a stranger in the classroom in April. Richard Arredondo, 62, said he was lecturing in his accounting class on April 25 when an intruder walked in and stared at five female students, according to a local news report. “All of a sudden,…
Self-insured employers facing the threat of COVID-19 workplace safety litigation could opt to accept infection workers compensation claims, as exclusive remedy clauses could provide better protection from expensive lawsuits later on, according to legal experts. “Liability is scary because there are no caps,” said Mike Fish, Birmingham, Alabama-based founding member of the comp defense firm Fish Nelson & Holden LLC…
More workers with lower back pain are receiving physical therapy to treat their workplace injuries, and that therapy is leading to shorter durations of disability and lower medical costs, according to a study released Tuesday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute. Researchers at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based WCRI examined 26,000 low-back workers comp claims with more than seven days of lost time…
The surge in workers compensation “mega claims” of at least $3 million continues as medical treatments and technologies advance, according to research by ratings bureaus around the country. While mega claims comprise a statistically small percentage of all workers comp claims, claims are reaching the mega threshold more quickly, primarily because of the associated costs of technological advances in medicine….
“Mega” workers compensation claims from the construction sector comprised approximately 40% of large claims from 2001 to 2017, yet made up 20% of indemnity claims, according to research released Tuesday by six ratings agencies including the National Council on Compensation Insurance and the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California. Researchers analyzed comp claims that surpass $3 million in costs,…
