Even Unemployed Volunteers Can Get Wage Benefits, High Court Rules

A New Jersey volunteer firefighter is now due almost $120,000 in wage benefits, even though she wasn't working and had no wages at the time of her injury. That was the decision handed down this week by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Kocanowski v. Township of Bridgewater. Municipalities are now bracing for potentially higher workers' compensation costs in the future, but claimants consider the ruling a major victory for volunteers in New Jersey, where most towns and smaller cities rely exclusively on volunteer firefighters. A municipal insurance official said the ruling may not ...