| Drug and Alcohol Dependence |
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| SSI and SSDI benefits) More... |
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| Social Security Benefits |
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| Though most states require that the injured worker be subject to a contract for hire to receive workers' compensation benefits, such benefits will usually be denied if the contract for hire is illegal. However, the illegality must arise from the nature of the employment and the worker's performance of illegal acts as opposed to the illegality that arises in the making of the contract itself. More... |
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| Injury "By Accident" |
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| For the recovery of workers' compensation benefits, many jurisdictions require proof of injury "by accident." While some states define accidental injuries in their workers' compensation statutes, others do not leaving the courts to sort out the meaning intended. Generally, "by accident" signifies that an identifiable, yet unexpected, event caused the injury. Whether an injury has occurred "by accident" has been heavily litigated among the applicable states with the result being a developing definition of the phrase. For example, one court defined an "accident" as an unanticipated occurrence as opposed to one that was expected. Another court has defined "accident" as an unexpected and precipitous event that happens suddenly and produces an injury based on objective findings. More... |
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| Act of God and the Concept of "Arising Out of the Employment" |
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| An act of God includes natural occurrences over which man generally has no control such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and lightening. Though an employee is injured due to an act of God, he may still recover workers' compensation benefits if he can show that the nature of his employment placed him at a greater risk for injury due to such an act of God. For example, consider the repairman who is required to work on downed power lines during a storm. He performs his work while a thunderstorm rages by standing in a bucket raised high into the air from the back of his repair truck. This situation would appear to elevate the employee's chances of being struck by lightening over the average individual. As such, it is likely that the employee would be compensated for an injury by lightening. More... |
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| Social Security Benefits |
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| The central question of whether a given state can apply its workers' compensation statute focuses on various factors including the place that the employment contract was entered into, the place of the employee's injury, and the employee's usual place of employment. For example, an employee who entered into an employment contract with a construction company in California, and who was subsequently injured on a construction site in Nevada, may be able to seek workers' compensation benefits in both California and Nevada. However, double recoveries are generally not permitted. More... |
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