The Supreme Court of Kansas agreed that the widow of a worker who sustained fatal injuries in a fall at work rebutted the presumption of intoxication afforded the employer where two drug tests showed the presence of marijuana in the worker's system, but other...
Construing the state’s strong presumption that where a worker tests positive for drugs after a workplace injury, his or her injury was “substantially occasioned” by the use of the illegal drugs [see Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-102(4)(B)(iv)(a)...
An Arkansas appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission that a worker who suffered a partial traumatic amputation of a finger as she tried to dislodge material from a jammed cutting machine, and who subsequently tested positive...
Where a post-injury drug test could not be offered as evidence because it had not been verified according to the requirements described in La. Rev. Stat. § 23:1081, it would also be improper to allow the use of the test to establish a fraud defense under La. Rev...
Reiterating that in Kansas, because of multiple concerns, the rules of evidence do not apply to workers’ compensation hearings, a Kansas appellate court held the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board should not have excluded the results of a marijuana...
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a Florida job applicant, who was required to take a drug test, but then offered no actual position, may not maintain a civil action against the prospective employer under Florida’s Drug-Free Workplace Program...
Acknowledging that under Ga. Code Ann. § 34-9-17(b)(2), there is a rebuttable presumption that marijuana use caused a work injury if any amount of marijuana is in the employee's blood within eight hours of the time of the alleged accident, a Georgia court also...
In a split decision, a Mississippi appellate court held that an injured worker should not have been disqualified from receiving workers’ compensation benefits because he failed to submit to a post-accident breathalyzer test. The Court found that the Commission’s...
Court held that providing an inadequate urine sample is not a refusal to take a drug test In Byers v. Acme Foundry, 2017 Kan. App. LEXIS 12 (Jan. 27, 2017), a Kansas appellate court recently held that the term “refusal,” as it is used in Kan. Stat. Ann. § 44...
The term “refusal,” as it is used in Kan. Stat. Ann. § 44–501(b)(1)(E)(2012), carries with it an element of willfulness, indicated a state appellate court recently. Accordingly, where an injured Kansas worker was unable to provide an adequate urine sample in a...
The Supreme Court of Ohio, in a divided decision, held that a worker who tested positive for marijuana after seeking medical treatment for a work-related injury was nevertheless eligible for TTD benefits in spite of the fact that he had been fired after the injury...
In a case of first impression in the District of New Mexico, a federal district court held that an employer was under no obligation to accommodate an employee’s use of medical marijuana, even where the drug had been supplied to the employee under New Mexico’s Compassionate...
A new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) study quantifies the growing use and cost of drug tests performed on California injured workers in conjunction with the expanded use opioid painkillers, reveals shifts in the types of tests performed...
Warning Employers About a New Enforcement Paradigm By Karen C. Yotis, Esq., Feature Resident Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter Something’s afoot at the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, and it’s...
A truck driver, who injured his knee while performing a pre-employment job-function test during the hiring/orientation process, was an employee at the time of his injury for purposes of a workers’ compensation claim, held a Mississippi appellate court. The driver...