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The idea that grounds workers' compensation coverage requirements is a good one. Ohio businesses can protect themselves from the possibility of financial liability for a worker's injury or illness by providing such coverage. Additionally, workers also benefit because...
Telephone hearings, are they here forever? Should some hearings always be telephonic? Experienced workers’ compensation lawyer Robert Solt, III discusses the advantages and disadvantages of Ohio workers’ compensation telephone hearings, as well as tips on how to be...
Telephone Hearings are so 2020. The Industrial Commission of Ohio plans to begin transitioning the hearing process from telephone hearings to web conferencing via the Webex platform by mid-April, 2021. Parties and representatives still will be able to attend hearings...
Yesterday, March 22, 2021, the Industrial Commission of Ohio conducted a special telephone meeting in which the use of Webex was discussed. Tom Connor, Director of Adjudications, stated that the Commission presently hears 3 hearings per hour for seven hours per day. He anticipates the move to Webex will take place in mid-April. Of note, the Commission has conducted telephone…
Since the Spring of 2020, the Industrial Commission has conducted hearings by telephone in light of the continuing health pandemic caused by the spread of COVID-19. The Commission has yet to release any public statement about the resumption of in-person hearings. However, on January 20, 2021, the Commission updated its hearing officer manual, known as Adjudications Before the Industrial Commission…
Shortly after the inception of the pandemic, Ohio state lawmakers got to work proposing legislation to cover coronavirus in the workplace. House Bills 571, 573, 605, 633, 667, and 668 propose amendments to the occupational disease provision of the workers’ compensation statute (4123.68) to include COVID-19 as a scheduled disease for first responders, essential workers, health care workers, grocery store…
Since the onset of the pandemic in the Spring of 2020, the Director of the Ohio Department of Health, through its orders, has encouraged employers to permit “as many employees as possible to work from home by implementing policies in areas such as teleworking and video conferencing.” As a consequence, many Ohioans have been working from home in accordance with…
Under R.C. 4123.512, employers and claimants alike may appeal orders of the Industrial Commission regarding the allowance of a claim or condition to the common pleas courts. Once the court has jurisdiction over the case, the case proceeds like any other civil litigation. According to the Ohio Supreme Court’s report forms, workers’ compensation cases should be tried within 12 months…
On January 9, 2021, Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio House Bill 308, which provides for compensation and benefits to public safety officers (a.k.a. “first responders”) who sustain a disability from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) received in the course of and arising out of employment, but without a physical injury. The new law also contains an anti-retaliation provision, which provides for…