West Virginia: Bill to permit workers’ comp for PTSD in first responders passes committee
For the fifth straight year, a bill to permit first responder agencies to offer workers’ compensation benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder is heading to the West Virginia House of Delegates floor. The bill permits agencies like fire, police or emergency services departments to offer workers’ compensation benefits to their first responders, but this year’s bill differs in that it is not mandatory that departments offer this benefit. One of the bill’s sponsors says it came about after the funeral of a Huntington fireman who died by suicide two weeks after returning to work when his benefits ran out. Herald-Dispatch
Former South Carolina Accident Fund chief charged with lewd acts involving minor
The 61-year-old former director of the South Carolina State Accident Fund, which provides workers’ compensation insurance to state government employees, has been arrested on charges of performing lewd acts on a child. The alleged crimes occurred from 2002 to 2004, when the victim was a minor. The former director was appointed to the state workers’ compensation agency in 2003 before he was tapped to run the accident fund. Post and Courier
Insurance surveillance helps Connecticut plaintiff secure settlement
An insurance company surveillance of a laborer injured when a water main he was working on underground burst proved critical in securing a $240,000 workers’ compensation settlement for the plaintiff. Connecticut Law Tribune/Law.com [may require registration]
The Arkansas Supreme Court recently affirmed that disputes over workplace injuries belong in the Workers’ Compensation Commission and that an employee may not utilize the Declaratory Judgment Act to avoid the commission’s exclusive jurisdiction. This should reassure employers dealing with an incident involving a workplace injury, write several attorneys with Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. JD Supra