NY: Liability and workers compensation priority issues for Chamber of Commece

Today's post is shared from http://poststar.com/

Business leaders are advocating this session of the state Legislature for relief from a state law that holds contractors “absolutely liable” for workplace accidents, said Peter Aust, president and chief executive officer of Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Business leaders want the Legislature to modify Section 240 and 241 of state labor law, known as the Absolute Liability Law, Aust said in a recent interview.

“It’s causing contractors’ insurance rates to go up, and that’s being passed on down to everybody whose doing a project -- whether it’s a housing project or a commercial project,” Aust said.

Business leaders also are seeking changes in workers compensation laws this session, he said.

“Reform measures in worker’s compensation have to happen ... or else we won’t see companies wanting to locate here,” he said.

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Smoking Is Worse Than You Imagined

The latest surgeon general’s report on the health effects of smoking — issued at the 50th anniversary of the pathbreaking 1964 report — offers astonishing new evidence of just how much harm tobacco is causing. Despite the many gains in reducing risks over the past half-century, researchers keep finding new and insidious ways in which smoking is harming the smokers themselves and nonsmokers who breathe in toxic fumes.

The report, issued last Friday, finds that cigarette smoking kills even more Americans than previously estimated (about 480,000 a year, up from 443,000), and is a cause, though not necessarily the major cause, of even more diseases than previously recognized, including liver and colorectal cancers. These add to the long list of other cancers caused by smoking, as well as rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments. The report newly identifies exposure to secondhand smoke as a cause of strokes.

The report estimates that smoking costs the United States between $289 billion and $333 billion a year for medical care and lost productivity, well above the previous estimate of $193 billion.

Most shocking, the report finds that today’s smokers have a much higher risk for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than smokers in 1964, despite smoking fewer cigarettes.

It reports that the risk of developing adenocarcinoma of the lung, the most common type of lung cancer, has increased substantially over the past several decades because of...

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NJ Supreme Court Hears Premises Rule Case

The Premises Rule maybe getting an updated interpretation by the New Jersey Supreme Court. Within the last several days the Court heard the oral argument in Hersch v The County of Morris. The case involves an employee of a public entity that was given a seniority “perk” of a paid parking pass to the County parking garage.

After parking in the garage, the employee crossed a public road to gain access to her assigned office in the County building. The employee was struck by a motor vehicle. Both the Trial and Appellate Courts held the matter to be compensable.

The NJ Supreme Court was presented by the defense that the accident occurred off premises and out of the control of the employer. The employee argued that the injury occurred within the course of the employment because the employer furnished the parking pass as “perk” to the employee. 

The employer alleged that the parking pass was sent to the employer as enticement to recruit employees, The convenience of which was a closer parking space you safety are going to and from her vehicle.

Click here to view a video a recording of the New Jersey Supreme Court oral argument.

Video (Windows media) file available on-line from Rutgers University Library

http://njlegallib.rutgers.edu/supct/args/A_59_12.php

A-59-12 Cheryl Hersch v. County of Morris (071433)

Note: See also Burdette v Harrah’s Atlantic City, 2014 WL 184412 (N.J.Super. A.D. 2014) affirming compensability of an employee’s injuring occurring in a parking lot owned and operated by the employer.

“Because the Act is humanitarian social legislation, it is to be liberally construed in favor of coverage, for the protection of employees. Valdez v. Tri–State Furniture, 374 N.J.Super. 223, 232 (App.Div.2005); see also Zahner v. Pathmark Stores, Inc., 321 N.J.Super. 471, 477 (App.Div.1999) (noting the courts’ liberal construction of the Act's provisions in favor of employees to accomplish its “beneficent purposes”).”

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Detroit $165 million bankruptcy settlement rejected

Public entity bankruptcies have placed the stability of workers' compensation and other benefits into a grey area. As the Detroit bankruptcy resolution continues to stumble the consistency necessary for critical benefit delivery raises more questions than answers. Today's post is shared from jurist.org  .

JURIST] A judge for the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan[official website] on Thursday rejected a proposed $165 million settlement agreement for the now-bankrupt city of Detroit to pay off UBS and Bank of America [corporate websites]. Referring to the agreement as financially imprudent [WSJ report], Judge Steven Rhodes put a halt to what has been the only completed deal in efforts to cut down the city's $18 billion long-term debt obligation. However, the court did approve of the city borrowing $120 million [Detroit Free Press report] for blight removal as well as improvements to city services. Currently, the city pays UBS and Bank of America $50 million each year, 5 percent of Detroit's annual budget, to reduce its debt.
Detroit's bankruptcy matter has been working its way through the court system since the city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in July of last year. In December 2013 Rhodes ordered the city to renegotiate its bankruptcy-related financing with UBS and Bank of America, serving as the impetus for this week's proposed settlement between the parties. Earlier in December Rhodes ruled that Detroit is eligible and authorized to file for...
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The Conflict Between NAFTA and Comp

The need for a consistent and universal public policy concerning the coverage undocumented aliens becomes heightened by this Arizona decision. The commonality of medical treatment costs for injured foreign employees might provide the catalyst for Federal judicial intervention to resolve this issue. Today's post is authored by David Depaolo and shared from http://daviddepaolo.blogspot.com .

It's the long arm of the law.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed into law conservatives applauded that it would open up the forces of economic powers from Mexico that were previously running underground.

Liberals said that NAFTA spelled the end of domestic work for Americans.

Of course, neither of the extreme views became reality.

What did become reality, however, is that Mexican firms sending employees into the United States became subject to the same workers' compensation laws that domestic employers are subject to - a real leveling of the playing field - at least according to a unanimous Arizona Court of Appeals panel opinion.

The court's decision in Porteadores Del Noroeste S.A. v. Industrial Commission of Arizona, No. 1 CA-IC 12-0038 held that the North American Free Trade Agreement did not pre-empt Arizona's workers' compensation statutes and that Porteadores del Noroeste could face liability in Arizona for the additional compensation that one of its workers, Adan Valenzuela, claimed he was due.

Valenzuela worked for Porteadores as a driver,...

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Dramatic Enrollment Drop Was Strategically Planned, Law School Says

A sign of the times. Today's post was shared by WSJ Law Blog and comes from blogs.wsj.com

The historic drop in enrollment at U.S. law schools has been the subject of anxious debate in the legal community. Some view the pattern as a symptom of a sluggish job market and growing skepticism about the value of a law degree.

According to Syracuse University’s College of Law, which has seen a particularly steep drop in its class sizes, the shrinking numbers are the result of smarter planning.

Syracuse’s Class of 2016 is nearly 25% smaller than its Class of 2014, decreasing from 255 to 196 over two years. The law school’s director of admissions, Nikki Laubenstein, spoke to the campus newspaper about the enrollment trend and offered this take:

“Our smaller class size is strategically managed and planned to provide the optimal level of engagement for our students with our law school faculty and programming opportunities,” she told the Daily Orange in an article published Wednesday.

The article doesn’t say how many applications the school is getting compared to previous years. In the face of shrinking demand, many law schools around the nation have slashed their class sizes to prop up student quality.

But Law Blog wonders — if a smaller class size was all part of a plan, as Syracuse’s admissions director suggests, does that mean the law school was offering a less than optimal educational experience when it was bigger? Ms. Laubenstein wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, Syracuse’s student body may...


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Judge Refuses to Sign Off on NFL Settlement

Workers' compensation has been a successful vehicle to shield employers from liability. Perhaps the the NFL should have considered when the legislated some professional athletes out of compensation court. Today's post was shared by WSJ Law Blog and comes from blogs.wsj.com

A federal judge on Tuesday refused to sign off on the NFL’s $760 million concussion settlement with retired players because of concerns that the pot of money might be too small to adequately compensate everyone owed money. The ruling puts on hold what had been a major victory for the league on a controversial issue that had long haunted the sport. The deal reached last summer after months of negotiations required the NFL to pay $760 million — mostly in the form of medical benefits and injury compensation — to thousands of former players and their families. A former federal judge acting as a court-appointed mediator endorsed the proposed settlement in court papers this month, calling it “fair and reasonable.” U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody of Pennsylvania, though, wasn’t convinced, denying her preliminary approval. “I am primarily concerned that not all Retired NFL Football Players who ultimately receive a Qualifying Diagnosis or their related claimants will be paid,” Judge Brody wrote in her order. “Even if only 10 percent of Retired NFL Football Players eventually receive a Qualifying diagnosis, it is difficult to see how the Monetary Award Fund would have the funds available over its lifespan to pay all claimants at these significant award levels.” Judge Brody said economists who conducted an analysis on behalf of the retired players believed that the sum was enough. That report, though, wasn’t submitted in...

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