COVID-19’s Top Legal And Regulatory Pitfalls For Workers’ Comp — What To Watch Out For

The state-level workers’ comp system is difficult enough to navigate in an average world.

But combined with ever-changing federal mandates related to Coronavirus, it adds a complexity to the pandemic environment that will impact employers for a long time to come, as they seek to not only protect employees, but also mitigate their legal and compliance risks.

The latest developments on these issues were presented in a recent webinar, Post-COVID-19: Workers’ Compensation Return to Work, hosted by Jennifer Santoro and Zachary Pratt, both partners with law firm Goldberg Segalla.

One concern that’s been top of mind for workers’ comp professionals is the same issue facing the insurance industry more broadly — the desire the bend or alter the longstanding covenant that says coverage does not exist beyond the bounds of policy language.

The recent explosion of new and re-written presumption laws is just one way that trend is manifesting. More than a dozen states have already passed legislation aimed at ensuring that COVID-19 related claims will be covered for certain employee groups, despite the impossibility of proving whether a worker was infected on or off the job.