Florida House Panel Approves Bill Giving First Responders With PTSD More Time to File Claims

Florida law enforcement officers and firemen will have additional time to file workers’ compensation claims for work-related post-traumatic stress under a bill that passed a Florida House committee last week.

• The bill builds off a 2018 law that modified the state’s workers’ compensation laws to allow first responders who have job-induced post-traumatic stress disorder to tap into indemnity benefits which compensate injured workers for a portion of their lost wages while out of work with an injury.
• Under current law, first responders must file notices within 90 days of the qualifying event or manifestation of the disorder. Any claim not filed within 52 weeks of the qualifying event or manifestation is barred.
• A legislative staff analysis indicates the bill’s fiscal impact is indeterminate. The Florida Department of Financial Services, which houses the state’s Division of Workers’ Compensation, analyzed the bill that indicates the changes could have a “significant” increase on state and local government workers’ compensation costs.

Florida Politics

 

New Jersey Supreme Court Finds Compensability in Parking Lot Case

The New Jersey Supreme Court recently rule injuries sustained by an employee of a public library in a parking lot owned and controlled by the Township of Sparta, were compensable, writes Jeffrey Newby of Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby LLP. The township both owned and exercised control over the premises, as reflected by its maintenance of the premises.

• Rather than file a workers’ compensation claim, the employee filed a civil lawsuit (as well as a subsequent workers’ compensation claim), against the township, in order to potentially recover a much greater civil damage award as opposed to the benefits available under workers’ compensation. The court also dismissed the employee’s third-party claim against the township.
• The issue of control is much more often applied to a multitenant parking lot where the employer does not own the parking lot and certainly does not maintain it or plow it as was the case here, Newby writes.

JD Supra

 

27 State Attorneys General Call for Withdrawal of Vaccine Mandate

A coalition of 27 attorneys general is calling on Fed-OSHA to withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large employers.

• The emergency temporary standard, which would require vaccination for millions of employees, as of last week had not been rescinded. It would have applied to two-thirds of the American workforce.
• The coalition contends that the current mandate is unlawful because the agency it lacks authority to issue a broad vaccine mandate for larger employers.

WJLA

 

New York Contractor Indicted for $2M Workers’ Comp Fraud

A Rockland County, New York contractor has been indicted for allegedly providing false information to obtain required workers’ compensation insurance.

• Authorities allege from November 2016 through November 2017, the 51-year-old defendant applied for and received binding coverage based on information he supplied that he was operating a real estate business with a single employee and only $40,000 in workers’ comp payroll.
• An investigation found the defendant actually employed over 90 individuals and had a workers’ compensation payroll in excess of $8,000,000 for construction, not real estate work as stated on the policy, prosecutors allege.

Daily Voice

 

Georgia Could Pay Off Workers’ Compensation Backlog in 2022

Georgia’s fiscal status has put the state in a position to clear its workers’ compensation backlog, according to the Governor Brian Kemp, budget director.

• Georgia ended the 2021 fiscal year with a $3.7 billion surplus.

• Kemp’s plan calls for spending $150 million to pay off workers’ compensation owed to state employees in the current fiscal year. The governor has proposed spending $3 billion more than previously proposed.
• The governor’s budget director last week told the state legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee some of the pending workers’ compensation claims date back to the 1980s.

Center Square