Employers: Dispute Is Part of Loosening Disease Causation Standards

Washington employers say a case pending before the state Supreme Court highlights the judicial expansion of causation standards for occupational disease claims and demonstrates why lawmakers appropriated $250,000 in the budget for a study of best practices to determine when diseases are caused by work conditions. The high court on June 13 held oral arguments in Street v. Weyerhaeuser, where the dispute is whether claimants need expert medical testimony to prove that an occupational disease arose from the distinctive conditions of employment. Injured workers must prove that a disease arose &ld...