NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.
Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.
Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.
With the demise of “bad faith” in workers’ compensation we are seeing a lot of attempts by plaintiff attorneys in 3rd party lawsuits to try to work-around the exclusive remedy defense in order to hold an employer vicariously liable for damages. The core issue is always whether an individual was an employee or an independent contractor of a company at the time of the accident. Many times there will be a contract between an individual and a company where both agree that the individual is not an employee. It seems like this would be enough, but the Houston Court of Appeals recently decided that even where there is a clear agreement between the parties, there must still be an analysis of evidence regarding who has the right to control the details of the individual's work. Because this is a fact question, even a clear agreement cannot be the basis of a summary judgment. Stevenson v. Waste Management of Texas, No. 14-17-00433-CV, 02/21/19.
- Copyright 2019,Jane Lipscomb Stone, Stone Loughlin & Swanson, LLP.