The Exclusive Remedy Rule is neither exclusive nor a remedy. What began as a cornerstone of the social insurance experiment known as workers’ compensation has become so riddled with leaks that employers and their insurers often give up on subrogation in order to protect themselves from liability they were never intended to bear. One of…
It actually makes very little legal sense and for all intents and purposes is fundamentally antithetical to a free market, capitalist society. Its underpinnings can be traced to Germany’s Second Reich and its Prime Minister, Otto Von Bismarck. It has ties to Marxism and Socialism and its evolution has been fueled by populism and social…
Virginia Court of Appeals Defies Trial Lawyers Association The Virginia Court of Appeals just gave a big boost in the arm to Special Arbitration of workers’ compensation liens. Article First (Compulsory Provisions) of the Special Rules and Regulations (revised January 3, 2006) states: Upon settlement of a claim or suit, signatory companies must submit any…
For over a decade, state and federal courts throughout the nation have wrestled with the issue of whether FEHBA (Federal Employees Health Benefit Act of 1959) preempts state subrogation laws. 5 U.S.C. §§ 8901-8914. Both Missouri and Arizona are well-known anti-subrogation states. See Wayne v. Bankers Multiple Line Ins. Co., 796 S.W.2d 660 (Mo. Ct.…
James Bond is not the only one with a License to Kill. Professional sports teams sell season ticket packages, often in the form of a seat license to a specific seat in the franchise stadium for every regular season game played in the stadium. The license/ticket typically gives the purchaser a restricted interest in a…
Ignorance of the law is no excuse – unless you’re the Nebraska Court of Appeals. On March 8, 2016, the Court, in perhaps one of the most illogical and biased decisions in many years, held that a trial court can wipe out a workers’ compensation lien for literally any reason – including the fact that…
The recent consolidated bellwether trial of the DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant multi-district litigation concluded on Thursday, March 17, 2016, with a whopping $502 million verdict against defendants DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. Following months of trial in the Northern District of Texas, the jury found in favor of all eight plaintiffs — five…
The World of George Jetson Has Arrived! Imagine beginning your day with a cup of coffee in the car on the way to work, watching the morning news from a holographic projection on the windshield while making notes in preparation for a 9:00 a.m. meeting. All this while your car follows a preset route, automatically…
While not related to subrogation, we felt that an interesting article about a hypothetical situation in which the peculiar intersection of constitutional, federal, and state law creates an opportunity for the “perfect crime.” In 2005, Michigan State University College of Law Associate Professor Brian C. Kalt hypothesized a “criminal” act that would not be subject…
In the 1970s, the Oklahoma Sooners’ NCAA football team successfully began implementing a new offensive system known as the “option offense.” Sooner Coach Barry Switzer has been credited by many for having perfected the use of the wishbone offense, a staple of option offenses. Forty years later, the option returned to Oklahoma, but this time…