Workers Compensation

For many years, state legislators and executive office holders, strongly aligned with business interests, complained about the need to change Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation laws. Governor Mary Fallin has been one of the biggest proponents of workers’ comp “reform”. In February of 2014, their… Read Full Post

Work comp reform failing Jonathan Buxton (Point of View, March 8) left out some very important points in praising Oklahoma’s new workers’ compensation system. He failed to mention the reforms made Oklahoma’s compensation rate the absolute lowest in the nation. Now, a worker who makes $2,000 a week… Read Full Post

Nicole Templin Flick was in the last trimester of her pregnancy when she lost her husband, Scott Williams, in the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. Her daughter, Kylie, never had a chance to meet her father. As a toddler, Kylie was diagnosed with sensory integrative dysfunction, possibly… Read Full Post

Question: What is workers’ compensation? Answer: Workers’ compensation is a state benefit program for injured workers. It was established in the 1920s. It is a compromise plan where employers are relieved of their liability if an employee is hurt due to the negligence of an employer or a co-… Read Full Post

There’s good news for injured workers from the Oklahoma Supreme Court.  The Court has found unconstitutional a clause the Oklahoma legislature added to the state workers’ compensation law in 2014.  The clause required that cumulative trauma cases in a workers’ compensation claim were not… Read Full Post

Two years have passed since Oklahoma enacted the last major change in workers’ compensation law. Only one bill concerning workers’ compensation was filed heading into the 2016 Oklahoma legislative session, but that doesn’t mean another big change won’t happen. Before the session began February 1,… Read Full Post

A groundbreaking Oklahoma legal case has proved why workers’ compensation matters. An Oklahoma woman named Ms. Viola Sugg recently won her case with the Oklahoma Supreme Court after she was initially denied workers’ compensation benefits that she was legally owed. In this case, claimant Viola… Read Full Post

This article was published September 6, 2015, as a banner headline on the Sunday newspaper. It is a travesty and an embarrassment to the worker of Oklahoma that a state agency is negotiating with employers regarding fines which are to be imposed for failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance… Read Full Post

Oral argument is set before the Oklahoma Supreme Court in case No. 113,811 for 9:30am, Sept. 30, 2015. The appeal challenges: The use of the American Medical Association (AMA) Guides, Sixth Edition, to rate disability The deferment of permanent partial disability awards if a worker returns to… Read Full Post

February 1 marks the day of transition for the Oklahoma workers’ compensation system. Cases filed before this date will remain with the existing Workers' Compensation Court, which will become the Court of Existing Claims. Any injury case after the first of the month will be handled by… Read Full Post