Court Addresses 'Dependency' in Non-Traditional Family Settings

Two decisions by the Arkansas Court of Appeals last month illustrate how important it is for workers' compensation attorneys to determine exactly who is a dependent of a deceased worker before death benefits are paid − as well as how complicated that question is due to the changing nature of the American family. Attorneys in Arkansas say the state's comp law is able to cope with the evolving societal concept of "family" because the way its benefit statute is drafted doesn't focus on the nature of the biological or legal relationship of a claimed dependent with the worker, but...