Disability Law

Congress May Investigate Fairness of State Workers' Compensation Laws

By David A. McCranie, Esq.

Representative Joe Baca (D-CA) has introduced H.R. 635, the "National Commission on State Workers' Compensation Laws Act of 2009."  Filed in the U.S. House of Representatives on 1/22/2009, the bill proposes to establish a commission to "study and evaluate State workers' compensation laws in order to determine if such laws provide an adequate, prompt, and equitable system of compensation for injury or death arising out of or in the course of employment."  The commission would also "study and evaluate whether additional remedies should be recommended to ensure prompt and good faith payment of benefits and medical care to injured workers and their families."  With respect to "additional remedies," the commission would conduct "a study of whether other adequate remedies are available to ensure the prompt payment of benefits and to reduce or eliminate bad faith delays in payments of benefits, providing medical care, and discouraging misclassification of workers as independent contractors and or leased employees to avoid paying workers' compensation benefits."

Full post as published by Florida Workers’ Compensation Law Blog on January 24, 2009 (boomark / email).