As all workers' compensation practitioners know exclusive remedy is the linchpin of the "great social bargain" underlying the workers' compensation system within which we toil on a daily basis. The workers' compensation statutes are premised on the employer making payment to an injured worker in a no-fault system with the employee agreeing to forgo possible tort remedies in return. The employee receives money to live on and has necessary, related medical expenses paid and in return the workers' compensation payment becomes the "exclusive remedy" for the injury. Easy. Both sides get something and in return give something: The employee gets paid and the employer is off the hook for any potential lawsuit...read more.

New York: Postdoctoral Fellow Is Employee of Med School In Spite of Fact That Salary Was Funded by National Institute of Health Grant. A postdoctoral fellow who worked in a research laboratory at NYU School of Medicine and whose salary was funded by a federal grant that was administered through the National Institutes of Health was nevertheless an employee...read more.

Connecticut: Employer Need Not Pay for Palliative Medical Care. Various medications prescribed by the plaintiff's treating physician for a head injury that occurred some 18 years earlier were palliative rather than curative, and thus were not reasonable and necessary medical treatment...read more.

Vermont: Physician's Use of AMA Guides' DRE Method-Rather Than ROM Method-for Determining Impairment Did Not Support Reformation of Settlement Agreement. Where settlement in 2002 of the PPD segment of a workers' compensation claim was based upon a physician's...read more.

Florida: Arbitration Clause in Employment Contract Binding in Former Employee's Retaliatory Discharge Claim. An employment agreement that required arbitration of all employment disputes between a staffing company...read more.

Vermont: Agreement to Arrange for Impairment Rating Medical Visit Does Not Toll Statute of Limitations. The State of Vermont, as employer, did not waive the affirmative defense of statute of limitations when it agreed to...read more.