Workers' Compensation Blog | St. Joseph Injury Lawyer

3

Mar 2021

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

17

Feb 2021

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

3

Feb 2021

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

20

Jan 2021

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

30

Dec 2020

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

23

Dec 2020

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

9

Dec 2020

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

25

Nov 2020

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

11

Nov 2020

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

28

Oct 2020

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

14

Oct 2020

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 ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

30

Sep 2020

Workers’ Compensation Commission Stretching for Ways to Deny Recovery

Claims for workers’ compensation by injured workers have to go through an arduous administrative hearing process before they can be heard in court. That process has gotten more blatantly anti-worker in recent years. This is especially true for claims demanding compensation from the Second Injury Fund . A recent workers’ compensation case shows this in clear detail. Judge Denies Compensation for ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

16

Sep 2020

Commission Refuses to Follow Court Ruling

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission recently made a shocking and disturbing decision in a workers’ compensation case: They expressly refused to apply the interpretation of the law from the Missouri Court of Appeals. Injured Worker Recovers Compensation The situation began in late January, 2017. A 62-year-old Wal-Mart employee, with a history of several medical conditions, was lifting a ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

2

Sep 2020

As OSHA Inspections Decline, Workplaces Become Less Safe

Workers in St. Joseph and the rest of Missouri would much rather not suffer a workplace injury than receive workers’ compensation . While workers’ compensation is essential for the recovery process, no one wants to get hurt in order to receive it. Preventing those workplace injuries is something that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is supposed to do. Increasingly, though, ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

19

Aug 2020

New Rulings Tighten Workers’ Compensation Coverage

Earlier in our blog, we tracked a pair of workers’ compensation cases that made it to the Missouri Supreme Court . Both of those cases raised an important question in workers’ compensation law: When does an injury “arise” out of the course of employment? As we predicted in that earlier blog post, the Missouri Supreme Court denied the victims recovery in both cases. Missouri Supreme Court Denies ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

5

Aug 2020

Injured Worker Pointed to Second Injury Fund

The Missouri Court of Appeals recently ruled on a workers’ compensation case that implicated the still controversial Second Injury Fund . Once again, it is the injured worker who stands to lose. Corrections Officer Assaults: Awarded Workers’ Compensation The case involved a corrections officer at a Missouri prison. While on duty, she was attacked by one of the inmates. Because of a locked door, ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

22

Jul 2020

The Demise of Missouri’s Comfort Doctrine

Missouri courts have long been chipping away at workers’ compensation protections. Perhaps nowhere has this been more blatant than in how the Supreme Court of Missouri effectively ended the “comfort doctrine.” What is the Comfort Doctrine? The comfort doctrine is a piece of the law that lets injured employees tap into their workers’ compensation coverage for accidents that happened while they were ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

8

Jul 2020

Employers Use Liability Waivers for Returning Workers

As Missouri struggles to reopen from the coronavirus, employers are looking for ways to insulate themselves from liability if one of their workers contracts COVID-19. The method of choice in St. Joseph has been to force employees to sign a liability waiver. But are these waivers enforceable? And how will they alter an employee’s rights to workers’ compensation if they get sick? St. Joseph ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

24

Jun 2020

The Aggressor Defense in Workers’ Compensation Cases

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) continues to deny workers’ compensation whenever it finds an opportunity. The most recent case involves a problematic application of the so-called “aggressor defense” to injuries caused by workplace fights. Employee Hurt in Fight, Claims Workers’ Compensation The case is Ford v. Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc . Back in June, 2015, two ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

10

Jun 2020

Coronavirus Lawsuit Against Missouri Meat Processing Plant Dismissed

Meat processing plants in Missouri have proven to be a reliable source of coronavirus infections. With the close proximity of the workers and the difficult work environment, germs spread easily. The processing plants, however, have been slow and less than willing to take adequate safety precautions. Workers in a processing plant in Milan, Missouri, filed a lawsuit for these failures to keep them ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

27

May 2020

Utility Workers Hurt in Kansas City Explosion

Five utility workers in Kansas City have been hurt in an explosion. While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it appears that a faulty switch may be to blame. If it is, the injured workers may be able to recover workers’ compensation as well as file a products liability lawsuit . Explosion Hurts Five Utility Workers in Kansas City The initial reports have indicated that the ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

6

May 2020

Congress Considering Legal Immunity for Businesses that Spread Coronavirus

St. Joseph is letting its stay-at-home order expire and allowing businesses in the area to reopen. The decision will allow more people to interact with each other in public, which is going to increase the number of coronavirus cases in the area. This raises a crucial question: When people get sick because of actions taken by businesses or their boss, can they file a personal injury lawsuit and ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

29

Apr 2020

Can Coronavirus Fears Let Employees Refuse to Work?

The coronavirus has upended the idea of what makes a workplace unsafe. Suddenly, it has become dangerous to merely work in close proximity to coworkers and face the constant exposure of new people and customers. If anyone is infected with the virus, it can spread in the workplace and get other workers sick. Workers’ compensation only goes so far: People infected with coronavirus can face ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

15

Apr 2020

Emergency Order for Workers’ Compensation Coverage for Coronavirus Victims Isn’t Enough

In a recent workers’ compensation blog post, we looked at whether Missouri’s workers’ compensation scheme would cover healthcare workers infected with the coronavirus . That post looked at Missouri Statute 287.067 , which defines “occupational diseases,” and predicted that, based on prior cases in the state, it would provide workers’ compensation coverage for healthcare workers. However, the post ...

Posted By Smith Law Office

1

Apr 2020

Coronavirus' Long-Term Impact on Workers’ Compensation

As states like Missouri scramble to adapt their workers’ compensation schemes to the coronavirus spread, some of the weaknesses at the heart of the system are becoming more and more apparent. Chief among them is the power of insurance companies to simply raise their rates, indirectly shifting the costs of current coverage to tomorrow’s workers. States Struggle to Adapt Workers’ Compensation to a ...

Posted By Smith Law Office