NJ - Legislators Seek to Block ABC Rule Amendments
12/15/2025 | 0
Two New Jersey Republican lawmakers are trying to block rules that the Department of Labor and Workforce Development proposed to clarify its interpretation of the ABC test of employment.
Sen. Declan J. O'Scanlon, R-Holmdel, and Assemblymember Victoria A. Flynn, R-Middletown, introduced concurrent resolutions — Senate Concurrent Resolution 138 and Assembly Concurrent Resolution 177 — arguing that the rules the department proposed earlier in the year inappropriately tip the scales toward finding an employer-employee relationship whenever someone performs labor for pay.
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The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that an insurance carrier did not waive its objection to the venue where it tried to have a case removed.
Case: Benchmark Insurance Co. v. Harris, No. 2024-IA-00813-SCT, 12/11/2025, published.
Facts: Cory Harris worked for Mississippi Concrete. He allegedly suffered injuries when he was picked up and thrown by the chute extending from a concrete delivery truck.
Mississippi Concrete had workers’ compensation coverage with Benchmark Insurance Co. at the time of the alleged accident. Steadpoint Risk Management LLC handled Harris’ claim for Benchm...
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker should have been granted summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for his injuries from tripping on the edge of a makeshift ramp.
Case: O’Brien v. Tectonic Builders Inc., No. 150670/19, 12/02/2025, published.
Facts: Kevin O'Brien worked as a marble floor finisher. While working on a store renovation project in Manhattan, O’Brien tripped on the front edge of a makeshift ramp and suffered injuries.
The ramp was 4 feet wide, made of plywood and used in a vacant retail space that served as a staging area for the workers'...
The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that an insured’s failure to exhaust its administrative remedies prohibited it from asserting a counterclaim for unjust enrichment in a dispute over unpaid premiums.
Case: LMI Insurance Corp. v. PPC Roofing LLC, No. 24-1830, 12/03/2025, published.
Facts: PPC Roofing LLC is a limited liability company with a single member. It contracted with LMI Insurance Corp. for two consecutive, one-year term workers’ compensation insurance policies through the state’s assigned risk plan.
In April 2022, LMI sent PPC an audit summary calculating an $18,893 ...
In the latest example of how indefensibly corrupt California’s workers’ compensation system has become, a former San Francisco city official pleaded guilty to embezzling $627,118 from municipal coffers by paying a fake company to “audit” workers’ comp claims.
Stanley Ellicott helped manage finances and technology for the San Francisco Department of Human Resources Workers’ Compensation Division.
In his role as a DHR official, Ellicott paid Independent Auditors Group to audit workers’ compensation claims. Ho...
West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals reinstated a worker’s deliberate intention claim against his supervisor, who allegedly struck him with a moving truck.
Case: Stanley v. Structsure Scaffold Solutions LLC, No. 25-ICA-146, 12/04/2025, published.
Facts: Lonnie Stanley worked for Structsure Scaffold Solutions LLC.
According to Stanley, he had a disagreement with his supervisor, Jonathon Lasure, over the time frame for delivery of certain materials to a jobsite. At the time, Lasure was sitting in the driver’s seat of a pickup with the passenger door open.
Stan...
Michigan's Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision Friday, denied an application to review an appellate court decision dismissing a constitutional challenge to the law used to withhold indemnity benefits from undocumented workers who used fraudulent documents to secure a job.
The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center in 2021 sued Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, arguing that it was harmed when its program providing legal services to farmworkers was swamped with requests for assistance from undocumented workers. The organization said the cause of the harm was the 2003 Michigan Court of Appeals decision holding ...
The National Council on Compensation Insurance said it doesn't anticipate an immediate end to the trend of annual reductions in loss costs and rates, even if the extent of the cuts has decreased in recent years.
NCCI said filed loss costs and rates have generally declined for more than a decade because of the combined effects of decreases in frequency, premium growth from higher wages and moderate medical and indemnity cost changes.
The latest filings proposed smaller reductions because wage growth has eased relative to post-pandemic highs, and medical severity grew by about 6% in the 20...
The Workers' Compensation Board of Indiana announced that the total Second Injury Fund assessment will increase again next year.
The total assessment for 2026 is $11.1 million, up from $9.2 million in 2025 and $7.2 million in 2024.
The fund paid $5.6 million for indemnity benefits and about $2 million for prosthetics in 2025. Administrative fees last year totaled $326,100. Unlike SIF reports from prior years, the latest assessment does not disclose the available fund balance heading into the new year.
Employers will not be assessed a reconciliation factor in 2026.
The board increased i...
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed an appellate decision allowing a workers' compensation judge to hear a case involving legislation she sponsored as a member of the Assembly creating a presumption that COVID-19 is compensable for essential workers.
The Appellate Division of the Superior Court in November 2024 held that a judge of compensation claims who formerly sponsored a bill is not automatically disqualified from presiding over cases implicating or interpreting that law.
"Thus, a judge's personal knowledge of or experience with certain legislative histor...
The Arizona Court of Appeals upheld the closure of a worker’s claim for injuries from being punched in the jaw.
Case: Zawada v. Industrial Commission, No. 1 CA-IC 25-0010, 12/02/2025, unpublished.
Facts: Catherine Zawada worked for American Parking Inc. at a hospital. While she was at work in February 2023, an unruly patient blindsided her with a closed-fist punch to her jaw.
As she fell to the floor, Zawada's head hit the wall with such force that it left a dent in the drywall. She lost consciousness briefly and, upon regaining consciousness, was taken to the emergency room for e...
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker was entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for his fall from a ladder.
Case: Yagual v. Hudson Canal LLC, No. 24640/20, 12/02/2025, published.
Facts: Henry Yagual allegedly suffered injuries when he fell from an A-frame ladder as he was working at a construction project.
According to Yagual, he informed the foreman that the rubber feet were missing on part of the ladder, but the foreman instructed him to do the work nevertheless. The ladder shifted while Yagual was using it, causing him to fall backwards.
Procedural history: Yagual...
A divided Iowa Court of Appeals upheld a worker’s award of permanent partial disability benefits and alternate medical care.
Case: Koeller v. Cardinal Logistics Management Corp., No. 25-0172, 12/03/2025, published.
Facts: Kevin Koeller worked as a delivery driver for Cardinal Logistics Management Corp. He injured his shoulder at work in October 2022.
About two weeks later, Koeller saw a nurse practitioner who noted that his shoulder was bruised and his upper arm was swollen. An X-ray taken that day showed moderate AC joint osteoarthritis.
A magnetic resonance imaging scan perfor...
West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals overturned a Board of Review decision that expanded a worker’s claim and authorized additional treatment, holding that it failed to address a doctor's report finding the treatment unnecessary.
Case: Marshall County Coal Resources v. Yarbrough, No. 25-ICA-140, 12/04/2025, published.
Facts: Colby Yarbrough worked for Marshall County Coal Resources. He injured his left ankle at work in October 2023.
Nurse practitioner Gail Nickerson diagnosed a sprain. A claims administrator for Marshall’s insurance carrier accepted ...
The Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice on Thursday announced that a business owner was arrested and charged with failing to provide workers' compensation coverage.
Lou Milardo, 58, is the principal owner of Lou Milardo Builders and J&L Milardo.
Lou Milardo Builders never had workers' compensation coverage, the division said.
An employee of Lou Milardo Builders was seriously injured in August 2021. Because there was no workers' compensation coverage, the state's Second Injury Fund has provided more than $85,000 in combined medical and indemnity benefits, the divisio...
A Florida lawmaker has resurrected a proposal to define the conditions covered by the law that presumes heart disease is compensable for first responders.
Rep. Judson Sapp, R-Putnam, on Wednesday introduced House Bill 739, which would define heart disease in Section 112.18 as "any organic, mechanical or functional abnormality of the heart, its structures or the coronary arteries."
Lawmakers did not define heart disease when they enacted Section 112.18 and its presumption that heart disease, hypertension and tuberculosis are occupational conditions for firefighters, law enforcement ...
