January 14, 2010

An educational resource for schools served by SFM

Traveling: Is it work-related?

By Beth Mandel
Senior Defense Counsel and Director of Legal Training
Lynn, Scharfenberg and Associates, SFM's in-house law firm

Question: If a teacher becomes injured while leading a student ski trip in Vail, is it work-related? Or if a school social worker is traveling between buildings, runs a personal errand, and is in an auto accident, is it covered under workers' compensation benefits?

Answer: The general rule of law is that an employee whose work entails travel away from the employer's premises is, in most circumstances, under continuous coverage from the time the person leaves school until he or she returns.

For example, if a faculty member is traveling between schools and is injured, he or she is covered under workers' compensation as long as he or she did not deviate from a reasonable and regular route.

In out-of-town situations, when an employee is injured while doing his or her job, the courts are going to look at the employee's activities to determine whether the employee's actions were reasonable. Injuries sustained while out drinking, choking on a piece of meat, and even riding a motor scooter have been recognized by case law as being covered under workers' compensation. However, the courts have denied claims where the employee has departed from the employer's business and engaged in a personal mission.

These cases are often unique. Whether workers' compensation applies will depend on the facts of the individual case. Your best course is to report the injury to SFM and allow your claims representative to investigate the claim to determine whether it is covered under workers' compensation laws. The attorneys at Lynn, Scharfenberg and Associates are always available to assist with your most difficult workers' compensation claims.

Talk to...

A workers' compensation attorney

An occupational medicine physician

Your claims representative is your primary contact at SFM. SFM's in-house attorneys and doctors are also available to you as a policyholder. Feel free to ask them your work comp-related questions.

SFM's in-house attorneys and physicians

Transitional work resource

SFM recently launched an online "Transitional Work Warehouse" to help school districts and other organizations find suitable, light-duty and transitional jobs for injured employees.

Bringing employees back to work during the recovery process helps control your district's workers' compensation costs and can help build employee morale.

Search the school's light-duty job warehouse to help with a current return-to-work situation, or be proactive and build your organization's bank of light-duty jobs. Use the submission form to share what's worked for your organization.

Advice from SFM's

Slips cause $20,000 falls, on average

Slip and fall claims are expensive. The National Safety Council says slips-and-falls are the second most costly type of workers' compensation claim, averaging $20,228. They hospitalize more than 440,000 people each year.

And, they're on the rise. SFM has seen an upswing in slip-and-fall claims in recent years.