Chevron Gone, Benefits Threatened

Two Years After Loper Bright: Workers' Compensation, the Administrative State, and a Coming Reckoning Over Social Security

Trenton Targets Workers' Compensation

Pending New Jersey Legislation and What It Means for Injured Workers

Asbestos Burden Persists Quietly

What a new national study reveals about mesothelioma, occupational exposure, and the future of workers' compensation claims.

Medicaid Cuts: Workers' Compensation Pays?

Trump Administration's Medicaid Work Requirements May Shift Enormous Costs to Employers and Workers' Compensation Insurers

Asbestos at the Fifth Circuit

How a TSCA Rule Argument Reaches Into Workers’ Compensation.

Medicaid Care Workers: Not Jointly Employed

 In a significant ruling for the home care and Medicaid services industry, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed that a financial management services vendor does not qualify as a joint employer of home care workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The decision in Talarico v. Public Partnerships LLC, decided May 19, 2026, carries important implications for workers' compensation coverage, overtime liability, and the rights of workers who are exposed to occupational hazards, including asbestos, in home health settings.

Medical Records Fees Reshape Claims

The cost of obtaining medical records in New Jersey workers’ compensation cases has been significantly restructured. Senate Bill 2253—signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy as P.L. 2022, c. 114, effective September 22, 2022—slashed the permissible fees that hospitals and licensed health care professionals may charge for copies of medical and billing records. Three years on, a January 5, 2026, regulatory amendment to N.J.A.C. 8:43G-15.3 has updated hospital licensing standards to bring administrative rules into full alignment with the statute, closing a gap that had persisted since 2011.

Hemp, Medicare, and Workers' Compensation

A federal district court in the District of Columbia has dismissed a challenge to a novel Medicare hemp-access program, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. The decision in Smart Approaches to Marijuana v. Kennedy (D.D.C. May 22, 2026) has significant implications for healthcare providers, insurers, and workers' compensation practitioners navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of cannabis-related medical treatment.

Honor Beyond the Holiday

 Making Memorial Day Meaningful in 2026

Memorial Day falls on the last Monday of May every year. Flags are lowered to half-staff at sunrise and raised again at noon. A moment of silence falls at 3:00 p.m. local time. Parades march through city streets. And then, almost imperceptibly, the holiday becomes a long weekend — a time for cookouts, road trips, and retail sales. But the day deserves more from us. It deserves remembrance.

Workplace Stress Kills Workers

The International Labour Organization's landmark 2026 Global Report, The Psychosocial Working Environment: Global Developments and Pathways for Action, delivers a sober verdict: workplace stress is not merely an inconvenience; it is a global killer. For workers' compensation practitioners in New Jersey and across the United States, this report carries profound implications. It quantifies what many attorneys and physicians have long argued: that the psychosocial conditions of work — job strain, overwork, harassment, and insecurity — are primary drivers of cardiovascular disease, mental health disorders, and even suicide.

The ILO's new global estimates, published here for the first time, are staggering in scope and sobering in implication. They demand a reevaluation of how workers' compensation law responds to stress-induced illness and death in the workplace.

Ebola: A Global Workers' Peril

A deadly new chapter in the decades-long struggle against Ebola has arrived. On May 16, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), its highest level of alarm, as the Bundibugyo virus (BVD) rapidly spread across northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and crossed the border into Uganda. With no approved vaccine and no targeted therapeutics, this rapidly spreading, often fatal hemorrhagic fever poses an urgent, underappreciated threat to workers around the globe, particularly those in healthcare settings.

9,000,000 Reasons to Say Thank You

Workers' Compensation Law Blog Reaches 9 Million Hits

Invisible Wounds, Visible Costs

The ILO’s 2026 SafeDay Report and What It Means for Workers’ Compensation

Virus on Board: Are We Ready?

Hantavirus, the Andes Strain, and the Workers' Compensation System's Preparedness for Person-to-Person Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Roundup's Reach: Workers' Compensation at Stake

Today the Supreme Court heard one of the most consequential pesticide preemption cases in decades. At stake: whether state failure-to-warn claims against Monsanto's Roundup herbicide are preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The Court's eventual ruling will send shockwaves through workers' compensation and occupational disease litigation nationwide.

Pabst Brews a Legal Storm

On April 15, 2026, the Wisconsin Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling that will reverberate through asbestos litigation, workers’ compensation law, and premises liability for years to come. In Estate of Carol Lorbiecki v. Pabst Brewing Co., 2026 WI 12, the court held that a brewery owner could be found liable under Wisconsin’s Safe Place Statute for a steamfitter’s fatal mesothelioma, even though the worker was employed by an independent contractor, not by Pabst. The decision affirms a $6.9 million judgment, including punitive damages, and clarifies important principles governing the rights of workers exposed to occupational hazards on third-party premises.

EPA Sued Over Asbestos

On April 21, 2026, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Administrator Lee Zeldin in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint, filed as Case No. 1:26-cv-01350, seeks to compel the EPA to fulfill a mandatory, non-discretionary duty under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a duty that has gone unfulfilled for over a year, leaving millions of workers and their families exposed to the continuing hazard of legacy asbestos.

Gig Workers Without a Safety Net

How the Platform Economy Is Reshaping Workers’ Compensation Claims

The Hidden Cost of the Perfect Countertop

When Beauty Becomes a Death Sentence for Workers

Workplace Disease & Household Liability

A landmark California Supreme Court ruling in 2023 reversed earlier lower-court decisions and shielded employers from "take-home" COVID-19 liability — but the legal landscape for occupational disease exposure to household members remains complex and evolving. Here is what workers' compensation practitioners, employers, and injured workers need to know.