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Workplace Injury

Recent Posts in Workplace Injury Category

  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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 ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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, ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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, ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • 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 ...
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  • Missouri Supreme Court Hears Workers’ Compensation Cases

    The Supreme Court of Missouri recently heard oral arguments for two important workers’ compensation cases. Both of those cases seem poised to continue to restrict the rights of injured workers by limiting the concept of a workplace injury . This would make it increasingly more difficult for injured workers in Missouri to get the compensation they deserve. Supreme Court of Missouri Hears Two ...
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  • Missouri Workers’ Compensation Case Lacks Dependents

    A Kansas City man who was severely hurt in a workplace accident at a UPS facility on February 10 has died from his injuries. UPS has stressed, repeatedly, that the man was a contractor and not an employee. The difference matters for the workers’ compensation benefits, though even if there are survivor benefits available, the victim’s lack of dependents to collect it can complicate matters. Worker ...
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