A Washington jury could appropriately determine that at the time of a worker's injury, he was so intoxicated that he had abandoned his employment, where evidence indicated the worker's blood alcohol level was substantially above the legal limit, held a...
Where a post-injury drug test could not be offered as evidence because it had not been verified according to the requirements described in La. Rev. Stat. § 23:1081, it would also be improper to allow the use of the test to establish a fraud defense under La. Rev...
Reiterating that in Kansas, because of multiple concerns, the rules of evidence do not apply to workers’ compensation hearings, a Kansas appellate court held the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board should not have excluded the results of a marijuana...
Acknowledging that under Ga. Code Ann. § 34-9-17(b)(2), there is a rebuttable presumption that marijuana use caused a work injury if any amount of marijuana is in the employee's blood within eight hours of the time of the alleged accident, a Georgia court also...
Noting that once a Florida employer (or carrier) becomes aware of the need for medical benefits for a particular condition or injury, it has three options: pay, deny, or pay and investigate within 120 days, in accordance with § 440.20(4), Fla. Stat., a Florida...
In a split decision, a Mississippi appellate court held that an injured worker should not have been disqualified from receiving workers’ compensation benefits because he failed to submit to a post-accident breathalyzer test. The Court found that the Commission’s...
Proof that an employee was intoxicated at the time of his or her injury is not sufficient to defeat the claim, held a Virginia appellate court recently; the employer must also prove that the intoxication caused the accident resulting in injury. Where an employer...
Where lay witnesses testified that the decedent had the “normal” use of his mental and physical facilities on the day of an employee’s fatal accident, a jury could reasonably find that the deceased employee’s beneficiary had sufficiently rebutted the presumption...
Injuries sustained by a sales manager for a beverage distributor in an auto accident as he and a co-employee returned home at 1:00 a.m., after delivering beer more than six hours earlier to one of their employer’s restaurant customers, and also after consuming...
A Texas appellate court affirmed a trial court’s decision that a truck driver’s death in a vehicular accident did not arise out of and in the course of the employment where an autopsy report revealed the presence of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana...
An Arkansas appellate court has affirmed a decision denying workers’ compensation benefits to a worker who fell as he descended a ladder on the basis that following the accident he tested positive for methamphetamine and that he failed to rebut the statutory presumption...
A Texas appellate court affirmed a jury’s determination that an injured worker was not intoxicated when he sustained injuries in an electrical explosion in spite of the fact that a urine sample taken at a nearby hospital tested positive for benzoylecgonine...
A Mississippi appellate court affirmed a finding by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission that a truck driver’s intoxication proximately caused his injuries and, thereby, disqualified him from receiving benefits. The driver exited his truck, fell, and was...
© Copyright 2014 LexisNexis. All rights reserved. For reprint permission, contact Robin.E.Kobayashi@lexisnexis.com . During the past several Januarys, I’ve shared with readers my annual list of bizarre workers’ compensation cases for the prior...
Larson's Spotlight on Independent Medical Examination, Intoxication, Intentional Tort, and Defense Base Act. Larson's surveys the latest case developments that you need to know about. Thomas A. Robinson, the staff writer for Larson's Workers' Compensation...