Workers Compensation
| HIV/AIDS |
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| Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), cripples the body's immune system so that it cannot defend itself against other infections and diseases. There is no cure for AIDS, though drugs have been produced that slow the progression of the virus from HIV into AIDS. More... |
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| Workers' Compensation Exemption re Number of Employees |
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| In some states, an employer is exempt from maintaining workers' compensation insurance if it regularly employs only a certain number of employees. For example, with certain exceptions, employers in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia, New Mexico, and North Carolina are exempt if they have less than three employees. Employers in Rhode Island and South Carolina are exempt if employing less than four employees while employers in Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee are exempt if employing less than five employees. If the employee is injured and the state has altered its exemption statute, the operative version of the statute on the date of the employee's injury will control. More... |
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| Loss of Hearing as an Occupational Disease |
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| Occupational hearing loss is a prevalent condition in workers employed in noisy environments such as factories and repair shops. Several states recognize the gradual loss of hearing as a compensable condition and such recognition has also taken place under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act. Generally, a six-month waiting period is required prior to the filing of a hearing loss claim and the employee must be removed from the noisy environment for that time frame. The degree of impairment is generally based on speech frequencies with points ranging between total deafness and no compensable deafness. The improvement in hearing with the use of a hearing aid is not accounted for. More... |
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| Consequences of Injury in Course of Employment |
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| When an employee is injured in the course of his employment, the natural and resulting consequences from such injury are compensable as also arising in the course of employment. The compensable consequences of the injury can encompass a negative progression or complication of the injury or a completely new injury resulting from the initial one. However, for the initial injury to be considered the root of the resulting condition, there can be no independent intervening cause occasioned by the employee's own intentional conduct. More... |
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| Injured Employee's Recovery Election |
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| Historically, when an employee was injured in the course of his employment, but at the hands of a negligent third party, he was technically able to pursue relief through both the workers' compensation system and a third-party action. Though not able to receive a double recovery, the employee was technically eligible to recover under either theory. However, strict election rules required that he choose which theory of recovery he would pursue, even if his "choice" ultimately left him with no compensation at all. For example, the injured employee elects to proceed with a third-party action, thereby foregoing workers' compensation, but ends up losing the third-party action. More... |
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