As is the case in a number of other states, Delaware’s Workers’ Compensation Act bars recovery of benefits if the employee’s injury results from “the employee’s deliberate and reckless indifference to danger” [19 Del... Read More

Acknowledging that pursuant to Va. Code § 65.2306(A), an injured worker can be disqualified from receiving workers’ compensation benefits if he or she intentionally engages in activity contrary to a known safety rule imposed by the employer... Read More

A decision by the New York Workers’ Compensation Board that found a claimant had made the sort of misrepresentations under N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 114-a that would justify termination of her workers’ compensation benefits was... Read More

A New York truck driver’s failure to disclose his involvement in an online and retail flower business was not the sort of misrepresentation that should disqualify him from receiving workers’ compensation benefits under N.Y. Workers’... Read More

A New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that found in relevant part that claimant violated N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 114-a and disqualified him from future indemnity benefits where... Read More

A workers’ compensation claimant was appropriately disqualified from receiving benefits under N.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 114-a(1) where claimant represented to his treating physician and the carrier's medical expert that he was in constant... Read More

The failure of a Virginia bus driver to lock and wear his seatbelt upon picking up passengers—he later sustained serious injuries when his vehicle was struck from behind, careened down a guardrail, and then flipped—constituted willful misconduct... Read More

Statements made by a workers’ compensation claimant to her attorney that she felt like “punching the lights” out of a co-worker, whom the claimant felt had intentionally caused the claimant injury at work, were not the sort of acts that... Read More

By John E. Kawczynski, Field & Kawczynski, LLC, South Amboy, New Jersey In his commentary “ About Time! New ALJ Regulations Finally Final , ” Tom Fitzhugh examined how the new “Rules of Practice and Procedure for Administrative... Read More

A Louisiana appellate court affirmed a decision by a state workers’ compensation judge that a worker forfeited his right to workers’ compensation benefits because he deliberately made false statements in order to obtain workers’ compensation... Read More

Noting that once a Florida employer (or carrier) becomes aware of the need for medical benefits for a particular condition or injury, it has three options: pay, deny, or pay and investigate within 120 days, in accordance with § 440.20(4), Fla. Stat... Read More

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 268A, § 25, which generally allows Massachusetts municipalities to suspend “compensation” while an employee is under indictment for malfeasance, did not proscribe the receipt of workers’ compensation benefits... Read More

While the action of the employer in utilizing undersized “outriggers” to extend a work platform could be characterized as reckless, the employer was nevertheless entitled to summary judgment in an intentional tort action filed against it by... Read More

Proof that an employee was intoxicated at the time of his or her injury is not sufficient to defeat the claim, held a Virginia appellate court recently; the employer must also prove that the intoxication caused the accident resulting in injury. Where... Read More

In Georgia, violation of express instructions or the mere doing of a hazardous act in which the danger is obvious does not constitute willful misconduct that disqualifies an injured employee from an award of benefits; the employer must also show that... Read More