Queensland parliament today passed new laws forbidding so-called “farming” of personal injury claims after a rise in the targeting of cases such as institutional child abuse and workers’ compensation. The new laws prohibit anyone soliciting or inducing another person to make a claim, as well as payments to claim farmers for the details of potential … Read more
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Wednesday said a worker who was severely injured crossing a busy highway to get to work can sue his employer. The state’s high court, in deciding Harwood v. Ardagh Group, ruled that workers comp is not an exclusive remedy for injuries that are defined in law as not arising from employment. “We … Read more
As enthusiasm grows for apps that help injured workers navigate the workers comp claims and recovery processes, the technology is evolving past downloadable programs to include web-based platforms that can be accessed from a wider range of devices. Since apps began replacing email, faxes and phone calls that helped workers move from injury to recovery, … Read more
A federal jury in Minnesota has awarded a college student more than $111 million in damages after concluding negligent care of his injured leg following surgery led to a permanent disability. The jury verdict this week, which could be one of the state’s largest personal injury awards, is the result of a 2019 lawsuit brought … Read more
There’s no denying that COVID-19 accelerated the digital transformation already well underway throughout the property/casualty insurance industry. Although many carriers hesitated to digitize various aspects of their claims process prior to COVID-19 – primarily due to challenges with their legacy systems among other issues – their positions changed as individual states began issuing stay-at-home orders … Read more
An appeals court in North Carolina has ordered a workers compensation insurer to cover bariatric surgery for a preschool owner and operator who needed a knee replacement surgery related to a workplace injury, but was told she needed to lose a significant amount of weight in order for the surgery to be successful. Robin Kluttz-Ellison … Read more
A Massachusetts woman who signed a lump sum settlement with her workers’ compensation carrier over a right shoulder injury cannot later obtain benefits for a left shoulder injury linked to the same incident because she did not specifically mention the second injury in the settlement. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed a workers’ compensation … Read more
While claims severity is likely to continue to increase, experts say drops in the frequency of workers compensation-related injuries could help offset the effects of rising costs. On frequency and severity, “you put the two together and it’s still a positive story,” said Russell Pass, Itasca, Illinois-based chief information officer, executive vice president of product … Read more