Lessons of Comp Laude: A Panel Full of Advocates

This past Thursday I spoke at the National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network Annual Seminar in Chicago. The presentation topic, “The Ethical Challenges of Anti-Engagement,” discussed, among other things, three types of injured workers that we see within the workers’ compensation industry. Those categories were The Advocate, The Adversary and The Addled. While stressing that not…

Lessons of Comp Laude: With Logo's Aside, And Gratitude

I attended the Comp Laude® Awards last week where, as you may have already read, I was honored with the Industry Leader Award for 2019. The Comp Laude® Awards program was started by the late David Depaolo, founder of workcompcentral. It was intended to help change the narrative around workers’ compensation, and to recognize and honor the…

Don't Be a Slime If You Can't Do the Time

As an employer, you have a legal as well as moral obligation to make sure that the people working for your benefit do so in as “safe and healthful” an environment as possible. When bosses routinely and intentionally ignore that principle, people get hurt. And sometimes they die. And there is evidence that the threat…

In Workers' Comp, Justice Ain't Cheap

A report yesterday by WorkersCompensation.com’s Liz Carey is a reminder that fighting for your rights in the world of workers’ compensation can be a lengthy and expensive process. In this case, it was an employer fighting for their right not to be saddled with benefit obligations that were no longer legally theirs. And while the end result…

But It Could Have Been a Really Big Pigeon

Not all workplace incidents end up as a workers’ compensation claim. Some don’t end up injuring anything other than one’s pride, and fortunately to date, pride is not yet something considered compensable in most states. That will probably change once first responders’ figure that out, but that is not the point of the discussion today.…

It's Termination Time. Send in the Clown.

A man in New Zealand, called into a meeting where he knew he would be getting fired, used an unusual tactic for the event. He hired a professional clown to sit in on the meeting with him. The clown’s primary function during the termination meeting was to blow up balloon animals and mime crying while the…