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Workplace Injury

Recent Posts in Workplace Injury Category

  • 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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  • 2 Cops Accused of Workers’ Compensation Fraud

    A husband and wife who had retired from working as police officers have been accused of workers’ compensation fraud for faking injuries and collecting benefits. Married Couple Accused of Workers’ Compensation Fraud The situation unfolded in Santa Clara, California. A husband and wife – both of whom worked as police officers in the area – had both retired from the force after suffering injuries. ...
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  • Workplace Death Leads to Products Liability Lawsuit

    The family of a St. Joseph man who was killed in a tragic workplace accident have filed a lawsuit against the company who made the machine that killed him. The lawsuit is an example of an important hole in the rule that victims who receive workers’ compensation cannot sue for other damages. Workplace Accident Leaves One Dead at St. Joseph Lumber Mill Back on March 12, 2018, a St. Joseph man ...
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  • The 4 Types of Injuries in Workers’ Compensation

    Workers’ compensation law is full of complicated terms and phrases. Understanding the law, though, requires a thorough comprehension of these words and what they mean. Four of the most common phrases that get used to describe someone’s workplace injury are: Permanent total disability, or PTD, Permanent partial disability, or PPD, Temporary total disability, or TTD, and Temporary partial ...
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  • Jail Time Counters Worker’s Unemployable Claim

    A workers’ compensation case made it all the way to the Missouri Court of Appeals. Once there, though, the court made an interesting statement about how hurt workers can prove that they are “unemployable” because of a disabling injury. At the very least, the court’s decision highlights the importance of vocational experts. At most, though, the repercussions could have disturbing consequences. ...
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  • When Can Workers’ Compensation Claims Recover the Costs of the Case?

    A workers’ compensation case in Missouri clarifies when one side can be made to pay the court costs and attorney’s fees of the other side. According to the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, only what happens during the claim for workers’ compensation matters – not anything that happened before the case was filed. Judge Makes Employer Pay Attorney Fees and Court Costs The case, Stratton v. ...
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  • The Problem With How Administrative Law Judges Determine Credibility

    An otherwise innocuous workers’ compensation case highlights one of the ways that the legal system is stilted against injured workers in Missouri. Whenever there are conflicting medical opinions about how a worker got hurt – and there usually are – administrative law judges have to decide which doctor is more credible. Those credibility findings are extremely difficult to overturn on appeal, and ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation Cases and the Rule of Necessity

    A recent workers’ compensation case made it to the Missouri Court of Appeals. In the case, Nivens v. Interstate Brands Corp. , an injured worker applied to the Second Injury Fund for compensation after workplace injuries coupled with older medical conditions to make him unable to function on the job. The case is a rare one that revolves around the Rule of Necessity, which allows even conflicted ...
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  • OSHA Continues to Give Workplace Safety Powers to Employers

    The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is said to be investigating a fatal workplace accident in St. Joseph. The role of OSHA in that investigation, though, has been shrinking to dangerously narrow proportions in recent years, as the agency pushes more and more responsibility onto employers. When employers investigate fatal accidents at their plants, the losers are the employees. ...
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  • Missouri Workers’ Compensation, Frolics, and Detours

    One of the most important limitations about workers’ compensation coverage is that it only applies to injuries you suffer on the job . In our last workers’ compensation post, we wondered whether a postal worker was still “on the job” when their mail truck was hit by a school bus . It was 5pm, and many jobs have set hours, so if the mail carrier was working past shutdown, they could have a tough ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation Questions After Mail Truck Hits School Bus

    A crash between a school bus and a mail truck in Kansas City raises some important questions about workers’ compensation law in Missouri. School Bus and Mail Truck Collide in Missouri The crash happened around 5pm on Tuesday, September 17, 2019. According to police, the mail truck and a school bus hit each other at the intersection of Delmar Lane and 103 rd Street , just over the border in Kansas. ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation Claim Leads to Firing in St. Joseph

    A former worker at Mosaic Life Care is suing the St. Joseph hospital for firing her. She claims that her discharge was done in retaliation for reporting a workplace injury . As we have discussed in earlier blog posts, she will have an uphill battle under a workers’ compensation law that has been stilted in favor of her employer. St. Joseph Hospital Worker Claims She Was Fired for Reporting an ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation Denied Because Accident Happened While Walking

    In our last workers’ compensation post, we covered a disturbing case where a decision by the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission was overturned on appeal for a rare credibility problem . The Commission’s denial of workers’ coverage was disturbing because of how blatantly it disregarded testimony by the injured worker. But that was not the only disturbing part of the Commission’s decision. ...
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