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Workers' Compensation

Recent Posts in Workers' Compensation Category

  • What is the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission?

    In many of our blog posts on workers’ compensation , we mention the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, or LIRC . This Commission is a critical juncture for many claims for workers’ compensation, as it handles any appeals from the administrative law judge who first hears a dispute. Here is how the LIRC works. The Role of the LIRC in Workers’ Compensation When a worker gets hurt in Missouri, ...
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  • LIRC Misreads Court Case, Denies Second Injury Fund Claim

    Missouri’s Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) has yet again found a way to interpret the state’s workers’ compensation laws to deny claims made against the Second Injury Fund (SIF) . Coverage Denied Because Medical Experts Used Extra Injury The case, Ingles v. Corrigan Brothers , involved a 66-year-old union pipefitter who ruptured his rotator cuff at work in 2014. He claimed that ...
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  • The Direct and Causal Connection Required for Occupational Diseases

    People who have been hurt on the job in Missouri have a steep hill to climb to prove that they deserve workers’ compensation . One of the trickiest is to show that there is a direct causal connection between the job and an occupational disease . Occupational Diseases Have to be Directly Caused by Job The workers’ compensation law that defines occupational diseases, Missouri Statute 287.067 , does ...
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  • Is Being a Police Officer Inherently Stressful Enough for Workers’ Compensation?

    A workers’ compensation claim on behalf of a Missouri police officer argued that the stress that he suffered on the job amounted to an occupational disease. The administrative law judge and the Labor and Industrial Relations Board (LIRB), however, disagreed. Police Officer Dies from Heart Condition The claim was filed on the officer’s behalf by his wife. The police officer in St. Louis and ...
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  • Appeals Court Overturns Workers’ Compensation Case

    A Missouri appellate court has overruled the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission on a workers’ compensation case that we covered earlier in our blog. Worker Denied Compensation for Hearing Loss The case involves an airline baggage handler who suffered several successive back injuries. He also had hearing loss from being near so many planes and loud conveyor belts. Nevertheless, the ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation and E-Scooters

    Electric scooters have arrived in St. Joseph. Fun and useful for many, they can still be deceptively dangerous. The huge number of e-scooter accidents that have plagued cities in the past raise a pressing question for people who work in St. Joseph: If I ride an e-scooter while on the job and get hurt, will workers’ compensation cover me? In Spite of Track Record, Bird E-Scooters Land in St. Joseph ...
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  • Commission’s Narrow Workers’ Compensation Ruling Overturned, Again

    The Missouri Court of Appeals has again overruled the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission for its refusal to follow state Supreme Court precedent over the Second Injury Fund . The case is another step in the ongoing fight to get hurt workers the workers’ compensation they need to recover. Commission Refuses Second Injury Funds for Multiple Injuries The case involved a welder who hurt his ...
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  • What are Third Party Claims in Workers’ Compensation?

    In Missouri, third party claims happen when a victim gets hurt while on the job by someone who is unrelated to the workplace. In these cases, the victim can recover workers’ compensation , and can file a personal injury lawsuit against the party that hurt them. However, the workers’ compensation insurance company can put a lien on the personal injury settlement to recover what it had already paid ...
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  • Statutory Employers are Immune from Civil Lawsuits

    In several recent blog posts dealing with workers’ compensation law, we have looked at what statutory employees are , why they exist , and the “usual course of business” defense that many employers make. While statutory employees can use this legal concept to benefit from workers’ compensation coverage from someone other than their direct employer, it also means that these statutory employers are ...
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  • Missouri Supreme Court Rules on Second Injury Fund, Again

    The Missouri Supreme Court recently waded back into the waters of the Second Injury Fund , one of the most controversial aspects of the state’s workers’ compensation system. While its prior case dealt with Senate Bill 1 and its drastic limitations on who could benefit from the bankrupted fund , this new case is more about clarifying when the worker’s preexisting injury would trigger the Fund. ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation and Idiopathic Causes

    A Missouri appellate court has, once again, narrowly read the state’s workers’ compensation law to reduce the amounts that have to be paid by businesses after a workplace injury . In this case, the issue concerned idiopathic diseases, or those that do not have an identifiable cause. Obese Worker Dies from Heatstroke The case is Halsey v. Townsend Tree Service Co. , and involves the tragic case of ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation Retaliation and Sovereign Immunity

    A recent case by the Missouri Court of Appeals emphasized the role that sovereign immunity plays in the state’s workers’ compensation law. Worker Claims Termination Was Retaliation for Filing Workers’ Compensation Claim The case involved a worker at the University of Missouri, the state’s public college. After several months of complaints from her subordinates, the worker’s supervisors decided to ...
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  • Why are There Statutory Employers in Missouri?

    Several months ago, we discussed statutory employees in the context of workers’ compensation law in Missouri. While this classification of worker is essential for ensuring that hurt workers get compensated for their onsite injuries, the reasons for having statutory employees is not readily apparent. Here are three reasons why Missouri recognizes statutory employees and why they are useful for the ...
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  • Obstacles in Proving an Occupational Disease

    In a recent blog post about workers’ compensation law, we looked at what amounts to an occupational disease . Unfortunately, in Missouri, there are so many limitations and other obstacles that recovering compensation for a medical condition that came from the workplace is very difficult. No Coverage for “Ordinary Diseases of Life” One of the most important limitations for occupational diseases ...
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  • What is an Occupational Disease Under Workers’ Compensation Law?

    Under Missouri workers’ compensation law , an “occupational disease” is an identifiable disease that arises out of and during the course of employment. While occupational diseases fall under an employee’s workers’ compensation coverage, actually recovering this compensation is not easy. Occupational Diseases Under Missouri’s Workers’ Compensation Law Workers in Missouri who have been exposed to ...
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  • Personal Injury Claims for COVID Infections at Work

    In a recent blog post, we discussed how ordinary employees infected with the coronavirus on the job could recover workers’ compensation . If they are unable to prove that they got infected on the job, though, they might not be out of luck. Because of the trade-off at the heart Missouri’s workers’ compensation system , employees may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against their employer ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation for Ordinary Employees Infected with COVID

    The coronavirus continues to infect and kill people in Missouri. However, a mixture of lockdown fatigue and excitement from the vaccine rollout has led lots of people to take riskier behavior. In lots of circumstances, this involves going to indoor gatherings and events in bars or restaurants without wearing a mask. The employees at these establishments are increasingly being put in difficult ...
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  • Post-Injury Misconduct Defense Gets Huge Expansion

    Missouri employers often try to get out of making temporary disability payments to injured employees by claiming that the worker engaged in post-injury misconduct. A new workers’ compensation decision drastically expands this defense. Injured Worker Accused of Misconduct The case is Paxton v. Little Sisters of the Poor . In January, 2014, a nurse slipped on ice in the parking lot of the nursing ...
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  • Statutory Employer Claims and the Usual Course of Business Defense

    In our last blog post about workers’ compensation , we looked at what it means to be a “statutory employee” in Missouri . However, it is not easy for an injured worker to prove that they were a statutory employee. Not only do they have the burden of proving that they are a statutory employee, they also have to overcome the defenses that companies vigorously raise to avoid liability, such as the ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation and Statutory Employees in Missouri

    Most employers in Missouri are legally required to carry workers’ compensation insurance to cover their workers if they get hurt on the job. However, those that are required to carry this insurance do not always do so. When their workers get hurt, though, they are not always completely out of luck. They may be a statutory employee of another company at the time of the accident. A recent decision ...
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  • How Workers’ Compensation Could Be Hurt by a Takings Clause Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a case next year that could indirectly impact workplace safety and workers’ compensation . Unionizing Efforts Lead to Takings Clause Claim The case is Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid and comes from California. That state has a law that gives union organizers the right to enter agricultural areas for up to three hours per day, 120 days a year, to recruit farm ...
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  • Triumph Foods Put Workers at Risk of COVID

    An investigation by USA Today has uncovered huge problems in the way that Triumph Foods handled the coronavirus outbreak in its St. Joseph processing plant this year. What they did, and the cover-up that followed, led to deaths and life-altering infections of the disease. Investigation Uncovers Recklessness at Triumph Foods During COVID We mentioned the outbreak of the coronavirus at Triumph Foods ...
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  • Missouri’s Lack of a State Plan Puts Workers at Risk

    Some of the most important workplace safety regulations come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) . However, states like Missouri are free to implement workplace safety rules that provide even better protections for workers within their borders. These are called State Plans , and can have a significant effect on workers’ compensation systems. Missouri, however, has refused ...
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  • St. Joseph Says Educators are “Essential Workers”

    The St. Joseph School District (SJSD) has decided to reclassify school teachers and educators as “essential workers.” The shift in policy is meant to help keep local schools open during the pandemic. However, the details of the policy will mean that the virus will spread more quickly. It will also put teachers at risk of catching the coronavirus – a risk that their workers’ compensation might not ...
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  • The Commission’s New Trend is Disturbing

    In the last month, we have covered multiple workers’ compensation cases where the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission expressly refused to follow decisions by the Missouri Court of Appeals. It is very easy to underappreciate just how problematic this is. It essentially means that the Commission has gone rogue to deny injured workers’ claims. Commission Refuses to Follow Court Decisions Both ...
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