Reading Room

 The battlefield for the assault on state workers’ compensation programs has shifted from the state capitals to the halls of Congress. Industry and their insurers are now shifting gears from an attempt at tinkering with individual systems to a more generalized approach, where assets and energies can be concentrated uniformly through Federal modification of globalized issues that will place into jeopardy the rights of workers and significantly hamper the efforts of their attorneys in seeking recovery under state workers’ compensation systems. 

The NJ Supreme Court confirmed that dependents have a separate claim and may file for benefits if the injured worker dies of a work-related disease.

The state Supreme Court ruled that workers claiming occupational heart disease need only show that their job substantially contributed to the development of the disease to be awarded compensation. But in the first ruling of its kind in the country, the Court specifically held that smokers can be denied compensation if a job-related disease is principally caused by personal-risk factors such as smoking, obesity or a family history of the illness.

The ever-increasing desire of industry to contain costs in the medical management arena, as well as to gather information about current employees and new hires, and the technological realities of the millennium are now creating new battle lines for workers over the privacy of their medical, genetic, and other personal records.

The ever increasing desire of industry to contain costs in the medical management arena, as well as to gather information about current employees and new hires, and the technological realities of the millenium are now creating new battle lines for workers over the privacy of their medical, genetic, and other personal records. Computers make it easier to store, collect, share and analyze all kinds of data. The attempt to formulate intervention in this arena has placed both federal and state governments as contenders in the management of the confrontation, which may ultimately affect the employment status of every worker in the nation.

Over the course of the last few years, the United States economy has undergone a radical change that will require the New Jersey industry to reevaluate how it conducts business. New Jersey’s robust economy reflects a national trend towards full employment, but its workers’ compensation benefits have not kept pace with other states.

The New Jersey Supreme Court, struggling to maintain the remedial social aspects of the Workers’ Compensation Act, adopted a liberal “quantification of disability” rule to determine the Statute of Limitations date to be utilized in occupational disease claims.

The consensus that usually prevails when the New Jersey Supreme Court decides workers’ compensation claims has shattered this term when the Court dealt with an issue that could affect the ongoing school funding controversy.

The New Jersey Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that claims of workplace sexual harassment, when the harassment results in bodily injury, could not be excluded by insurance carriers under the employer's liability section of a workers' compensation policy. Lisa Schmidt filed a claim against her employer, Personalized Audio Visual, Inc., and against the president of the company.

In reviewing numerous medical records, including orthopedic and physical therapy reports, it is common to find mention of "The Waddell Test" and extensive reporting of examination findings featuring the results of its component maneuvers. These comments will review the testing as it was originally described in its proper clinical application. Finally, some insights that can be used to cross-examine expert witnesses who feature the Waddell test in their testimony will be discussed.

In a decision that focuses attention on the risk of harm to reproductive systems caused by exposure to toxins in the workplace, a state appeals court has ordered a judge to award compensation to an industrial employee for sterility, even though the condition did not affect his ability to work. Workers’ Compensation Judge Melvin Shteir had ruled that Ahmed Akef, a chemical worker at a BASF Corp. plant in Middlesex County, suffered no loss "in the workers’ compensation.