The ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Workers’ Compensation and Employers’ Liability Mid-Winter Conference was held on March 4-5 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the group’s first in-person meeting in two years due to COVID interruptions. Workers’ Compensation professionals from around the United States got together to share ideas, tips and techniques to improve the workers’ compensation systems around the country and work toward better outcomes in compensation matters on the whole. Local and non-local lawyers, judges and insurance professionals attended the event.
This year’s panels spoke to wide-ranging topics as varied as sexual harassment as a work-related injury, the “gig” economy, ethics in legal advertising and practice, and the 50th anniversary of the National Commission on Workers’ Compensation.
MBLB’s Simone Yoder joined three other distinguished attorneys and one insurance industry professional on a panel entitled, “The Interplay of Admiralty Law and State Workers’ Compensation Laws.” The panel discussed the differences between state claims, Longshore claims, DBA claims, and Jones Act matters and how those claims can overlap. They talked specifically about coverage and jurisdiction for land-based and maritime workers, the types of compensation an injured worker can receive under the various statutory schemes, as well as some key considerations with workplace injuries in the maritime industry and tactics for ethically handling the various types of work- injury claims from start to finish.
The panel discussion was the last of the day, right before the cocktail hour, but it was well-received by the attendees.