816.875.9373

Workplace Injury

Recent Posts in Workplace Injury Category

  • Can You File for Workers’ Compensation and Sue at the Same Time?

    Occasionally, workers who have been hurt on the job have the option of either filing a claim for workers’ compensation or a personal injury lawsuit. When they have these options, though, the “election of remedies” doctrine prohibits them from benefitting from both, as this would lead to a double payment. A recent case at the Missouri Court of Appeals is an example. Workers’ Compensation Award ...
    Continue Reading

  • Missouri Legalizes Recreational Marijuana: What This Means for Workers’ Compensation Claims

    Now that Missouri has legalized recreational marijuana, it raises an important question for employees in the state: If you get hurt on the job while high on marijuana, can you still recover workers’ compensation ? The answer is sometimes, but you may find the claims process to be more difficult than if you were sober. Missouri Legalizes Recreational Marijuana One of the issues on yesterday’s ...
    Continue Reading

  • What is an Open Medical Workers’ Compensation Award in Missouri?

    In some cases, workers’ compensation claims can recover what are known as “open medical expenses.” While the circumstances that can lead to these “medical open” awards are narrow, they appeared in one recent case before the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) . Commission Affirms “Open Medical” Award The case, Burns v. Wal-Mart , involved a cashier who tripped and fell over a wooden ...
    Continue Reading

  • The Jurisdiction of Missouri’s Workers’ Compensation Law

    Each state has its own workers’ compensation system. The small differences between those employment laws can drastically alter how much compensation injured workers can receive after a work injury. To prevent hurt workers from shopping around for a workers’ compensation system that gives them the best benefits , each state has rules that limit the jurisdiction of their workers’ compensation laws. ...
    Continue Reading

  • 8 Reasons a Workers’ Compensation Claim Can Get Denied

    In Missouri, if you are an employee and you get hurt on the job, you can be entitled to workers’ compensation . However, workers’ compensation is a type of insurance: Your employer pays regular premiums to an insurance company so the company pays for certain costs of workplace injuries that fall within the policy’s coverage. Importantly, some workplace accidents and injuries are going to fall ...
    Continue Reading

  • Can Workers’ Compensation Cause an SSDI Offset?

    In our last blog post about workers’ compensation , we looked at Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits , and when injured workers were eligible for them. One thing that we mentioned but did not detail was what happened when you receive both workers’ compensation benefits and SSDI benefits. The SSDI Offset Injured workers can recover both workers’ compensation benefits as well as ...
    Continue Reading

  • What is SSDI and am I Eligible After a Workplace Injury?

    If you get hurt at work in Missouri, you are usually entitled to workers’ compensation . However, if you suffer a significant disability that makes it impossible for you to work after the accident, you may also become eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. While these benefits can help you get closer to your original wage rate, the eligibility requirements are strict. ...
    Continue Reading

  • LIRC Affirms Award Under Last Exposure Rule

    Given the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission’s (LIRC) longstanding trend towards denying any claim for workers’ compensation that it can, a recent affirmation of an administrative law judge’s grant of temporary total disability and survivor benefits comes as a surprise. The specific facts of the case offered an opportunity for the LIRC to deny the claim, but it chose not to. Diesel Mechanic ...
    Continue Reading

  • What is Maximum Medical Improvement in Missouri?

    Maximum medical improvement, or MMI, is a fundamental concept in workers’ compensation law in Missouri. It is the point where the victim’s workplace injuries have stabilized and will not improve any more. Once MMI has been reached, workers’ compensation benefits shift from medical care and temporary disability benefits to permanent disability benefits. What is Maximum Medical Improvement in ...
    Continue Reading

  • How Light Duty Roles Can Create Workplace Conflicts

    After a workplace injury, the goal for most workers is to get back on the job. While workers’ compensation will cover their medical expenses and the wages they have lost while they were recovering, once a doctor clears the worker for light duty, those temporary disability benefits can disappear if the worker refuses a reasonable offer to come back to work. While employers in Missouri are not ...
    Continue Reading

  • Do Missouri Employers Have to Offer Light Duty?

    Under Missouri workers’ compensation law, employers are not legally obligated to provide light duty work to employees who have had work restrictions imposed by a doctor after a workplace injury. However, for financial reasons, many employers do provide light duty roles. Employees who are offered an adequate light duty role may lose workers’ compensation benefits if they turn it down. What is Light ...
    Continue Reading

  • Can I Sue My Employer for a Work Injury?

    In a recent blog post, we looked at whether workers’ compensation was an exclusive remedy for workers who have been hurt on the job. Generally, it is: Injured workers have to go through the workers’ compensation system, rather than file a personal injury lawsuit against their employer. However, there are exceptions to this rule that can let workers file a lawsuit against their employer and try to ...
    Continue Reading

  • Is Workers’ Compensation an Exclusive Remedy?

    In prior posts about Missouri workers’ compensation law, we have referred to the system as a trade-off between employers and their employees. One of the biggest implications of that trade-off is that workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy that injured workers have for on-the-job accidents. Given how workers’ compensation is strictly construed by courts and constantly tightened by the state ...
    Continue Reading

  • When Does Workers’ Compensation Start Paying Out?

    Missouri workers who get hurt on the job are entitled to workers’ compensation . When that compensation actually gets paid, though, is very important. People who read our blog may have noticed that some of the cases we have covered involve workplace injuries that happened years earlier. These cases are outliers, though, because they took a judge or magistrate to resolve the dispute. The vast ...
    Continue Reading

  • LIRC Uses Idiopathic Injury Rule to Deny Award, Again

    The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) has once again turned to the idiopathic injury rationale to deny workers’ compensation to a hurt worker. The specific facts of this case show just how unworkable this rationale can be. Medical Complications from Truck Accident Leads to Leg Amputation Back in February, 2014, a truck driver with diabetes left Missouri for Arkansas. In Arkansas, he ...
    Continue Reading

  • What Workers’ Compensation Benefits are Available in Missouri?

    Employees who get hurt on the job in Missouri are often entitled to workers’ compensation . But what does “compensation” mean? Here is what it includes. 3 Types of Workers Compensation Benefits in Missouri Each state has a different way of structuring workers’ compensation. Missouri’s system provides 3 kinds of benefits to hurt workers: Medical treatment, including travel expenses Disability ...
    Continue Reading

  • How Bad is the Brock Decision for Hurt Workers?

    A few weeks ago, we covered a workers’ compensation case where the Missouri Supreme Court narrowed co-worker liability . The negative effects of that decision on workplace safety cannot be understated. Missouri Supreme Court Narrows Co-Worker Liability The issue is fairly simple: What can workers do when they are hurt on the job by one of their coworkers? For example, in the case that the Missouri ...
    Continue Reading

  • Missouri Court Narrows Co-Worker Liability

    The Missouri Supreme Court weighed in on an important aspect of workers’ compensation law: Co-employee liability. The results were not good for injured workers. Missouri Supreme Court Reverses Workers’ Compensation Award The case is Brock v. Dunne . What happened was pretty straightforward. Several manufacturing workers would feed a sheet of particle board into a machine. Rollers in the machine ...
    Continue Reading

  • What are Survivor Benefits in Missouri?

    When a worker is hurt on the job, he or she is entitled to workers’ compensation . When the workplace accident was a fatal one, though, that compensation cannot go to the worker. Instead, it goes to his or her dependents in the form of survivor benefits. What are Survivor Benefits Under Missouri Workers’ Compensation Law? Survivor benefits are a type of workers’ compensation. They get paid to the ...
    Continue Reading

  • Calculating the Average Weekly Wage of Business Owners

    A recent workers’ compensation case centered on how to calculate a business owner’s wage rate. The outcome made it very clear that the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) wields great power in these cases. Repair Shop Owner Dies on the Job The case was Williams v. Reeds, LLC . Reeds, LLC was an auto parts and repair shop. The sole member of the LLC and the owner of the shop died in ...
    Continue Reading

  • LIRC Fails to Stay Workers’ Compensation Case, Gets Overturned

    Another Missouri appellate court struck down a workers’ compensation decision by the administrative law judge and the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) for contradicting a binding court case. While this instance is more incompetent than purposeful, it is neither the first nor will it be the last time that hurt workers have been denied coverage, as the LIRC stretches for new ways to ...
    Continue Reading

  • 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 ...
    Continue Reading

  • 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 ...
    Continue Reading

  • 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 ...
    Continue Reading

  • 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 ...
    Continue Reading
Page of 6

Contact Smith Law Office, LLC Today

  • Please enter your name.
  • This isn't a valid email address.
    Please enter your email address.
  • This isn't a valid phone number.
    Please enter your phone number.
    You entered an invalid number.
  • Please select an option.
  • Please enter a message.