Category: Workers' Compensation
2021 LexisNexis “Workers’ Compensation Emerging Issues Analysis”
I just read a wonderful resource for anyone who has dealings with any aspect of workers’ compensation law. “Workers’ Compensation Emerging Issues Analysis”, the 2021 LexisNexis volume co-authored by Thomas A. Robinson and National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network member firms contains well-written articles on multiple topics in the workers&rsquo...
Attention Portland Employers: Updates on Mask Mandate, Hazard Pay
On Monday, Portland City Councilors took two significant actions that affect employers in Portland, Maine. First, the Council repealed an emergency order from March 2020, eliminating the hazard pay provision set forth in the city’s minimum wage ordinance. Second, the Council enacted a city-wide indoor mask mandate affecting most...
2021 Employment Law Update: Part 12 – Tips and Trends for 2021 and 2022
In 2021, due to the ongoing pandemic, the Employment & Labor Group hosted their monthly Annual Update seminars virtually this year. For the final presentation of the series, five Verrill attorneys provide us with short video segments, detailing some of the top trends of 2021 and ways companies and...
This Week's Show: Beth Smith – What’s Covered? Workers’ Compensation 101
On Saturday, August 7, Tawny Alvarez, Verrill attorney and co-host of HR Power Hour, interviewed fellow Verrill attorney Elizabeth Smith for this segment of HR Power Hour. For this episode, Tawny and Beth discuss pre-existing injuries, emotional wellness, stress, a skiing accident—are they covered by workers’ compensation? Beth has...
NWCDN Workers' Compensation in a Post-COVID World
Join the National Workers' Compensation Defense Network (NWCDN) and the WorkersCompensation.com Center for Education Excellence for a live virtual seminar on November 12, starting at 10:00AM E.S.T. This year, due to COVID-19 concerns, the organization has partnered with WorkersCompensation.com to bring you two virtual stages, offering panels that will...
Should Employers Recognize COVID-19 As A Work-Related Injury?
While we know that everyone is being bombarded with COVID-19 recommendations, advice, news and data, one area that appears to have been overlooked is the question of whether COVID-19 infection, if acquired at work and due to the work performed, might result in a workers’ compensation injury. That specific...
Compromise Reached in Maine Workers’ Compensation Reform
Governor Mills has signed into law amendments to the existing Workers' Compensation Act that are the product of a bipartisan effort to avoid a series of proposed legislation that would have had the very real risk of dragging Maine back to pre-1992 status. With the election of a Democratic...
What Maine Employers Need To Know About Changes In Personnel Practices Following This Legislative Session
On June 26, 8:00-9:30 AM, we are hosting 'What Maine Employers Need To Know About Changes In Personnel Practices Following This Legislative Session' in our Portland office. During this in-person seminar, Verrill Dana and MassPay are partnering to deliver a discussion about the latest laws and regulations that were...
Times are Changing: Verrill Dana Hosts Full-Day Conference, 2019 Annual Employment Law Update
After a year full of changes for employers paired with a new governor in Maine, Verrill Dana will reflect on recent legal developments in labor and employment law and what the new year might bring during its 2019 Annual Employment Law Update. The full-day conference will take place on...
12 Days of HR: Dashing Through the Snow in a One-Horse Open Sleigh Could Result in a Work-Related Injury
As every New Englander knows, during this time of year the roads get frosty and even short trips become trickier. Even the most responsible employer cannot fully protect his employees from slip and falls in the parking lot following a snowstorm, or fender-benders while traveling for work. As a...
PODCAST UPDATE: Maine Supreme Court Rules in Medical Marijuana Workers’ Compensation Case
This time last year, Verrill Dana Labor & Employment Attorney Elizabeth Connellan Smith discussed the anticipated decision in the Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers Paper Company, LLC case and appeal in an episode of Verrill Voices entitled, Medical Marijuana: Is it reasonable and necessary? . Among the first cases to...
NCCI Maine Advisory Forum 2018
On Thursday, March 22, 2018, Attorney Beth Smith attended the morning session of the National Council of Compensation Insurance (NCCI) State Advisory Forum for Maine, held in Portland, Maine. Justin Moulton and Jim Davis hosted on behalf of NCCI, and there were roughly thirty attendees. The session opened with...
On Air with Ken and Matt: An Employment Law Update
In case you missed it, labor and employment attorneys Benjamin Ford and Tawny Alvarez were live on air in the Newsradio WGAN studio on the morning of Friday, December 22, discussing the firm's upcoming 2018 Annual Employment Law Update on January 25 in Portland. The morning news segment with...
The "Weinstein Effect" and Workers' Comp: When Sexual Harassment or Assault is a Work-Related Injury
Anyone who is even half-paying attention to the news has been reminded that, despite years of open discussion and training around the issue of appropriate behavior in the workplace, some things just haven't changed. There are still predators, idiots and bores among us. As the season for office holiday...
Medical Marijuana: Is it reasonable and necessary?
Verrill Dana Labor & Employment attorney Beth Smith discusses the anticipated decision in Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers Paper Company that should provide some clarity about whether or not workers' compensation insurers will be compelled to compensate for medicinal marijuana expenses incurred by injured workers. Stream the podcast online here...
Podcast: Workers Compensation in a Modern Marine Economy
The so-called "blue economy" is evolving at a rapid pace. As a result, innovative marine-based businesses are finding themselves exposed to risks when technological development outpaces legal development. This podcast discusses the risk of worker's compensation exposure that modern marine businesses face and how best to manage that exposure...
Straight to the Heart of Dixie: Alabama Workers' Compensation Act Ruled Unconstitutional
On Monday, May 8, a Jefferson County (Birmingham) Circuit Court Judge found two specific provisions of the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act unconstitutional, and because one or more provisions of the law were unconstitutional, the entire law was struck down. The two provisions at issue were a maximum cap of...
Breaking News on Medical Marijuana in Maine Workers' Compensation
We have just learned that the State of Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, has accepted Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers Paper Co., L.L.C., and Decision No. 16-26 , one of a pair of Administrative Law Judge decisions addressing medical marijuana that the Appellate Division affirmed last...
Twist and Shout, or A Small Victory in the Fight Against Creeping Non-Occupational Injury Coverage In Maine Workers’ Compensation
In a decision issued on February 17, 2017 ( Fuller v. Hannaford Brothers Company, App. Div. 7-17 ), the Maine Workers' Compensation Board Appellate Division revisited the two-pronged "arising out of" and "in the course of" standard necessary for an injury to be work-related. As many readers know, an...
Breaking News on DOL “Threats” to Federalize Workers’ Compensation
On Wednesday, October 5, 2016, a much-anticipated report generated by the NASI (National Academy of Social Insurance) was released. The report had been shrouded in secrecy, with even supposed "insiders" complaining of having been shut out of the process. Then, over the weekend, the Department of Labor held a...
Letters from the Workers' Compensation Trenches
I am just back from an invigorating seminar put on by the national group to which we belong as the sole Maine member, the National Workers' Compensation Defense Network and want to share some highlights. This year's seminar, held in Chicago on September 22, included presentations on lots of...
Calling All Workers' Compensation Attorneys!
As the sole Maine representative to the National Workers' Compensation Defense Network, Beth Smith , will be attending the NWCDN Annual Conference in Chicago later this week. Why? Fellow NWCDN member Bob Wilson explains in a blog post entitled "The NWCDN Road Show Hits Chicago and I Won't Miss...
WWE “Wrestles” with the Question of Whether Road Warrior Animal was an Employee or Independent Contractor
The issue of Independent Contractor versus Employee has reared its ugly head once again, this time in the context of professional wrestling. A Connecticut lawsuit filed on behalf of retired wrestlers is seeking damages from World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. for head injuries, alleged to have been sustained in the...
“Capturing” the Affect of Pokemon Go in the Office
This is reality. This is not a test. There are Pokémon in your office. Well, maybe; it's more like there are not real Pokémon chilling outside your door, but more that in an augmented reality there are graphical elements placed within your real world. The thing is, either way...
CDC Issues Opioid Guidelines
On March 18, the CDC finally issued much-anticipated guidelines for the prescription of opioids in chronic pain management "outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care." Over-prescription of opioids in the realm of workers' compensation has long been an issue of national importance. 47,055 lethal drug overdoses...
I'll Take a Double - Or The Danger of the Double-Recovery Provision under Medicare Secondary Payer Statute
Many of you are aware of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, or MSP. It was enacted to stop cost-shifting from a third party who is responsible for payment of medical costs onto Medicare. We see this issue arise in workers' compensation when an employer/insurer contests responsibility for medical treatment...
