Thank God for some occasional common sense. We don’t see it often anymore, but when it does come through, we should take a moment to appreciate it. That is certainly the case with a Texas appeals court, which last week rejected a man’s claim that alcohol blood level limits for drivers discriminate against alcoholics and…
Montana Supremes Show That with Fraud, as in Floor Buffing, The Devil Is In The Details
A Montana Law Week report detailing a February 6, 2018 decision by the Montana Supreme Court lays out a pretty credible case that those who endeavor to commit fraud should 1) pay attention to the details, and 2) follow through on their financial commitments. The case involved a man who had claimed an injury when…
Save the Date: Next Hot Seat Webinar to Tackle Sexual Harassment
Next week we will be officially announcing our third Hot Seat Webinar, to be conducted March 29, 2018 at 2:00 Eastern. It will discuss the very important topic of sexual harassment, with a look at its impact in workers’ comp; both as employers and service providers. We have assembled a terrific panel for this, and…
Is The Aging Infrastructure of Workers' Compensation Structurally Deficient?
In 2017, 612,677 bridges in the United States received an annual inspection. 54,259 of them were found to be “structurally deficient”. The average age of a structurally deficient bridge in this country is 67 years. Across all bridges, 4 out of 10 are more than 50 years old. Clearly, some of these critical elements of…
Big Sky, Big Stupid Ideas
Montana is a big state. They have big, wide open areas. They have big ranches. They have “big” speed limits. They have, as their tagline implies, big sky. And they also have big stupid ideas – or at least one big stupid idea. That stupid idea is centered around cash to which the state government…
Workers' Recovery and The State of the Onion Address
Legislators, Regulators, Judges and Fellow Citizens of the Workers’ Compensation World, As we gather tonight to look back on the past year within the workers’ compensation industry, we reflect on occurrences both good and bad; realities both positive and negative, and opportunities realized as well as missed. The year was, as has ostensibly become our…
Hey Genius, Fix My &%*$@#! Phone
While I still use a Windows PC in my office, I am decidedly an Apple guy both at home and on the road. My experience with my first iPhone led me to my first iPad, which eventually led me to a MacBook Pro, which eventually became a Macbook Air. I’ve had multiple iPhones as they…
In Alabama, It's So Hard to Say Goodbye
There is little doubt Alabama has had a very rough year. First, their entire workers’ compensation system was found to be unconstitutional. Then it wasn’t. That was followed by a raucous and controversial Senate campaign that drew the attention of an entire nation; a race that to this day has not drawn a concession from…
Workers' Comp Survey: Minimum Standards Yes, Federal Intervention No
If there was a common theme to the responses in our recent survey on Minimum State Standards for Workers’ Compensation, it was that the majority of respondents would like to see them; but not from the federal level. For this unscientific survey, which closed last week, we asked five basic questions of our audience: Do…
Why Injured Workers Hire Attorneys and Life Imitating Art
I would be the last person to describe one of my presentations as “art”, but, always one to be looking for a catchy title, I thought “Why Injured Workers Hire Attorneys and Life Imitating My Presentation” was a less than stellar opening. But, that is sort of what happened to me last week. This past…