In my first reading of the opinion this morning, I conclude that all the Supreme Court said in the big National Federation of Business vs. OSHA case is that OSHA does not have the statutory authority to regulate what workers'
Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog
Latest from Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog - Page 3
Teaching Workers’ Compensation and Scheduled Partial Benefits
As we enter 2022, the 50th Anniversary of the National Commission's 1972 Report on the structural inadequacy of workers' compensation, I've had the real privilege of teaching workers' compensation at three separate law schools in the last six months (Saint…
Pennsylvania Court Upholds Award to Worker who Sustained Injury due to Flu Shot (Home Depot, 12.23.2021)
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania (an intermediate appellate court) held, on December 23, 2021, that the WCJ, in his grant of an original claim for a flu-shot-induced “transverse cervical myelitis,” did not rely on the purportedly incompetent opinion…
“Worker Protection Bill,” The National Labor Relations Act, and Worker Safety
Although not directly related to workers' compensation, in the aftermath of tornado-related worker deaths in Illinois and Kentucky there have been a number of news stories discussing the need for a worker protection law of some kind. But as I…
Of Tornado Alleys and Workers’ Compensation
When I wrote the short piece, “Will Workers’ Compensation Work in a Mega-Risk World,” I did not have exactly in mind the overnight death of workers’ at an Amazon facility resulting from freakish (or maybe not so freakish) tornados in mind. But…
In Pennsylvania Case, Worker did not Commit Benefits-Disqualifying Misconduct by way of his Inability to Engage in Direct-Observation Urine Test
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, affirming the WCJ and Board, has held that the claimant, after an acknowledged injury, successfully proved his ongoing TTD case, despite the employer’s argument that he had (this writer’s term) engaged in post-injury misconduct (to…
New Article Explains Pennsylvania Law as to Compensability of Infectious Diseases, Reports on COVID WCJ Adjudications
The Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act features no statutory presumption of causation for COVID-19. Yet, infectious diseases, including COVID, were, and are, as a matter of legal causation, compensable under the law. They are compensable under our state’s two…
Greetings from Saint Louis and “What Covid Laid Bare”
I'm writing this post in scorching Saint Louis, where I am a visiting professor at Saint Louis University School of Law for the fall semester teaching workers' compensation and torts. It is always interesting to gain exposure to another state's…
New, Practical, Hospital Risk Management Article Focuses on Injuries to Volunteer Providers
In a new, practical, article – falling into the category of risk management counseling – the authors identify and explain the federal statutory and regulatory authorities which govern hospital planning for emergency conditions, with a focus on the thorny…
Skilled University of Chicago Law Student Categorizes the States as to COVID, Recommends Reforms for the Next Pandemic
In a finely-wrought and sophisticated essay, a University of Chicago law student seeks to catalog the response of state workers’ compensation laws to the challenges of the COVID pandemic. He identifies four “novel categories” of laws, placing them…