Fresh off a presentation on the Gig economy at an ABA function, and in preparation for a lecture I will be delivering to my students this week, I am inspired to reproduce the language of a decades-old U.S. Supreme Court…

Employee Status: Not a New Problem — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

Here is an abstract of my most recent academic article on workers’ compensation: During the days of Covid-19, OSHA has been much in the news as contests surface over the boundaries of what risks of workplace harm are properly regulable…

Fifty More Years of Ineffable Quo?: Workers’ Compensation and the Right to Personal Security — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

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 stautory authority to regulate what workers’…

NFIB v. Department of Labor, OSHA in a Few Sentences — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

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…

Teaching Workers’ Compensation and Scheduled Partial Benefits — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

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…

“Worker Protection Bill,” The National Labor Relations Act, and Worker Safety — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

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…

Of Tornado Alleys and Workers’ Compensation — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

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…

Greetings from Saint Louis and “What Covid Laid Bare” — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

A workers’ compensation bill filed in the Illinois House on February 19 provides, “no compensation shall be awarded to a claimant for death or disability arising out of an exposure to COVID-19 if the employee has refused a vaccination.” 820…

A Disguised Vaccination Mandate: Submit to Vaccination or Forego the Workers’ Compensation Causation Presumption — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

Today, I accidentally bumped into a recent Covid-related bill offered in the Arkansas House within the last couple of weeks that looked at first blush employee-friendly. It would exempt Covid-19 from the otherwise categorical exclusion of “ordinary diseases of life,”…

Locking Down Nonliability—An Accidentally Close Reading of an Arkansas Covid-19 Bill — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

Back on January 22 Professor Burton and I presented at a webinar conducted by the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group (WILG) and titled “COVID as an Occupational Disease: How Do Various States Handle these Claims?” In this report, published…

John Burton & Mike Duff on Workers’ Compensation Covid Presumptions — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog