OK - AG: Lawmakers Can Decide How to Spend Nearly $500K in Defunct Opt-Out Guaranty Funds
10/20/2026 | 0
The Oklahoma Attorney General said state lawmakers can decide how to spend nearly $500,000 held in a pair of funds created as part of the failed bid to bring a Texas-style opt-out option to employers.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Wednesday opined that the $201,697 held in the Oklahoma Option Insured Guaranty Fund and the $277,723 in the Option Self-Insured Guaranty Fund are no longer being held in trust following the 2019 repeal of the Oklahoma Employee Injury Benefit Act.
"The Legislature should exercise sound judgment in accordance with Article V, Sections 36 and 55 of t
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The New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division upheld a 24% increase in a worker’s permanent impairment from the second of two back injuries.
Case: Lawhon v. County of Monmouth, No. A-3070-24, 10/14/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Jason Lawhon worked for the County of Monmouth as a heavy equipment operator. He injured his back at work in October 2021.
Lawhon worked for the county full time, and starting in 2023, he began working an additional 20 hours each week at Home Depot. According to Lawhon, he began working part time at Home Depot to make ends meet because his wife lost her
A divided Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a university employee’s injury that happened during a costume contest at a mandatory work meeting was not compensable.
Case: Mirretti v. IWCC, No. 3-26-0126WC, 10/13/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Armaline Mirretti worked for Elmhurst University in the Office of Admissions. She filed a workers’ compensation claim, asserting that she had injured her right foot and ankle in October 2023.
At the hearing on Mirretti’s claim, witnesses testified that Elmhurst (whose mascot is the bluejay) holds a mandatory meeting, called the B
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker should have been granted summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for his fall from a ladder.
Case: De Souza v. 4720 Third Ave LLC, 10/13/2026, published.
Facts: Osmair Sebastio De Souza fell from an unsecured, 8-foot A-frame ladder while working on a construction project.
He testified that he was removing plywood sheets from the ceiling above him, and one of them struck the ladder.
According to De Souza, he was on the sixth step of the ladder when the plywood fell. His co-worker said De Souza was on the second step of the ladder.
Procedural h
A New York appellate court upheld a grant of summary judgment for a worker on his Labor Law claim for his injury from trying to prevent a beam from falling.
Case: Mitchell v. Pullman SST Inc., No. 30447/19, 10/13/2026, published.
Facts: Paul Mitchell was the foreman of a five-man crew tasked with lifting large metal beams from the ground to the top of a 14-foot-tall rolling tower used to build sidewalk sheds.
To pass up the metal beams, Mitchell and Hugh Nelson stood on the ground; Brian Bryne stood on the tower's intermediate 7-foot-high platform; and two co-workers stood at the top of
Inspectors from the Office of the Chief State's Attorney arrested three business owners Friday on suspicion of workers' compensation fraud.
Luis Pomaquiza, 42, of Southington; Jordan Tyler, 36, of Marlborough; and Solomon Sade, age 47, of Westport, were processed on warrants and released on $10,000 surety bonds, the state said.
Pomaquiza, the owner of LA Roofing LLC in Middletown, was charged with defrauding a workers’ compensation insurance carrier. Agents from the Department of Labor’s Wage & Workplace Standards Division visit
The California Division of Workers' Compensation on Monday announced the standards it will use for profile audit review of adjusting locations throughout the state in 2027.
The DWC said the PAR performance standard for 2027 audits is 1.67327. Audit subjects with scores equal to or lower than the performance standard will be required to pay any unpaid compensation but will not be assessed administrative penalties. Claims shops with a higher score will be subject to an expanded full compliance audit.
The full compliance audit standard for 2027 is 2.14192. Adjusting locations that receive a
The Oregon Workers' Compensation Division posted a bulletin announcing 2027 assessment rates, which are unchanged from 2026.
The division announced that the premium assessment rate for 2027 will remain at 9.8%.
The premium assessment funds operations of the division, the Workers' Compensation Board, most of the state's Division of Occupational Safety and Health and other parts of the Department of Consumer and Business Services.
The division also levies additional assessments on self-insured employers to support the Self-Insured Employer Adjustment Reserve and the Self-Insured E
The Court of Appeals of the State of Nevada affirmed a decision finding that a firefighter failed to establish that a restriction on fire suppression duties alone rendered him totally incapable of working in the role.
As a result, the court on Tuesday held that the evidence supports a hearing officer's determination that Timothy Gold was not eligible for permanent total disability benefits under the law governing occupational lung disease claims for first responders.
Gold, a Las Vegas firefighter, filed a workers' compensation claim in 2021 for occupational asthma. He retired in Apri
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania issued three more decisions finding that res judicata or collateral estoppel bars Philadelphia police officers from pursuing workers' compensation benefits for COVID-19.
The three unpublished decisions handed down Thursday involved similar fact patterns. The city provided "excused time" to officers who reported being diagnosed with COVID-19. The benefit allowed them to receive their full salaries without using other forms of accrued leave.
After the city ended the excused time benefit, the officers essentially argued that the excused
A Beaverton-based contractor with a history of safety violations was cited by state workplace authorities after an inspection revealed hazards that could seriously injure or kill workers.
Inspectors from the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division, also known as Oregon OSHA, said employees with Luka's General Construction LLC were observed on the roof of a two-story house without proper protection for falls from as high as 19 feet. Oregon OSHA said workers were wearing their fall harnesses, but the lines were not tied off to a secure anchor.
Oregon wo
The U.S. Department of Justice reported that a federal grand jury in Minnesota returned an indictment accusing a staffing firm owner and his son of tax and wire fraud schemes.
According to the indictment handed down Thursday, Ku Kelvin Vue was owner and president of UniSelect Services Inc., a temporary staffing agency providing workers to clients in manufacturing and other industries. His son, Travis Vue, helped run the company.
The indictment charges the father and son with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly misrepresenting to clients that UniSelect maintained a
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is holding a hearing Oct. 27 to hear testimony from the National Council on Compensation Insurance and receive public comment on a proposed 7.4% rate cut for policies incepting on or after Jan. 1.
NCCI says in the rate filing that the latest data shows a decrease in lost-time claim frequency that is a key component of the overall recommended rate reduction.
"In addition, strong wage growth in Florida has contributed to lower loss ratios because payroll serves as the exposure base for workers' compensation," NCCI said. "This effect
A Texas appellate court ruled that an employer waived its ability to challenge an arbitrator’s determination that it could not compel arbitration of the claims by the family of a deceased employee.
Brandon Stroebel worked for Rudtruck Operating LLC. As part of his employment, Stroebel signed a mutual arbitration agreement.
One year later, Stroebel suffered fatal injuries while working at an oil and gas wellsite owned by Maverick Natural Resources LLC.
Stroebel’s heirs sued Rudtuck for gross negligence under the Workers’ Compensation Act and sued Maverick for wrongful death
