In 2005, Missouri appellate courts held that the workers’ compensation system was no longer an employee’s exclusive remedy for certain injuries happening at work. For the first time, workers suffering from mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other occupational diseases could pursue compensation against their employers in the civil tort system. This was bad news for negligent employers.
Predictably, employers and insurance companies soon lobbied the legislature in Jefferson City to reimpose workers’ compensation exclusivity. O’Brien Law Firm lawyers spent many days opposing these efforts.
On January 1, 2014, a new law reestablished workers’ compensation exclusivity for occupational diseases. Thankfully, this exclusivity came with significantly Enhanced Benefits added for mesothelioma and asbestosis claims. The new law also removed the “set-off” for civil settlements and judgments, allowing plaintiffs to effectively pursue both a third-party civil case and a workers’ compensation case simultaneously. This Enhanced Benefit law has become a valuable financial supplement to many of our clients’ case recoveries. We are proud that our law firm was instrumental in the enactment of this Enhanced Benefit law.
The results described below in these Enhanced Benefit claims ARE IN ADDITION to recoveries secured for clients through civil tort and bankruptcy trust claims. They do not reflect the cases’ total value of compensation.
Contact us or call us today at 314-588-0558 for more information.
MO Workers’ Comp Client Results
Kansas City, MO
St. Louis, MO
Fulton, MO
St. Louis, MO
in payments
Kansas City, MO
St. Louis, MO
St. Louis, MO
St. Louis, MO
St. Louis, MO
St. Louis, MO
DISCLAIMER: No prior result in a case guarantees a future result that is the same. Each case we handle is individual with different facts and therefore every case is different. We cannot guarantee any specific result in your case.
We’ve filed and prosecuted many workers’ compensation claims for both mesothelioma and asbestosis. We have represented workers in a wide variety of trades, including insulators, ironworkers, boilermakers, operating engineers, maintenance mechanics, automotive assembly workers, plastic plant workers, and others. Several of these cases have gone to the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, the Missouri Court of Appeals, and the Missouri Supreme Court. These cases have helped to shape the law governing enhanced benefit claims.