News: E-Blast

It’s no news that to qualify for workers’ compensation benefits in Virginia, an employee’s injuries must result from an event “arising out of” and “in the course of” the employment. It is important to keep in mind that each phrase contains distinct elements that a claimant must prove before compensation will be awarded. “In the course of” typically refers to the time and place in which the claimant is working or performing the activity he or she was hired to perform. “Arising out of” is more nebulous, as it refers to the origin or cause of the injury. Specifically, Virginia...

Below please find links to the studies just released by The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission relating to their study of Virginia’s Workers’ Compensation System and Disease Presumptions. The Commission made 24 separate recommendations in their report. I suspect that we may see the General Assembly taking up many of these issues in upcoming legislative sessions. Link to today’s JLARC Workers’ Compensation System and Disease Presumptions presentation (72 slides): http://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/presentations/Rpt530Pres.pdf Link to the JLARC Workers’ Compensation System and Disease Presumptions Report (133 Pages) that was just made available online: http://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2019-workers-compensation.asp

From all of us at Ford Richardson!

Lifetime medical award. These three words are a constant source of frustration for anyone who handles claims under the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act. Once an award is entered in a claim, your claim has the possibility of remaining open and active for months, years, or even decades after their original injury. One particularly frustrating aspect of these eternal claims is the injured workers’ ability to revive a claim by seeking treatment for additional body parts or conditions long after benefits have been awarded. In the recent case of O’Neil v. County of Henrico, JCN VA00001314915 (Oct. 21, 2019), the Commission...

Courtney is an Associate in our Richmond, Virginia office where she will be working in the Workers’ Compensation Practice Group. In addition, Courtney has significant experience in the area of family law and will continue serving those clients as well. She is a graduate of the University of Richmond School of Law and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

In this season of Thanksgiving the team at Ford Richardson wishes to thank you for the opportunity to provide your legal services.

As of July 1, 2019, the legislature passed an amendment that puts an abrasive twist on defendants’ chances of prevailing on a two-year statute of limitations defense when voluntary payments have been made. Prior to July 1, 2019, Virginia Code Section 65.2-602, better known as the “Tolling Statute,” provided in pertinent part that: In any case where an employer has received notice of an accident resulting in compensable injury to an employee as required by §65.2-600, and whether or not an award has been entered, such employer nevertheless has paid compensation or wages to such employee during incapacity for work...

I have begun to notice more calls to our law firm with questions about the validity of wills.  I predict we will continue to see more litigation surrounding wills as the baby boomers continue to age.  In fact, since 2018 we have had four cases reach the Supreme Court of Virginia — Feeney v. Feeney, Record Nos. 170031 and 170032 (April 12, 2018); Canody v. Hamblin, Record No. 170747 (July 19, 2018); D’Ambrosia v. Wof, Record No. 170521 (February 22, 2018); and Parson v. Miller, Record No. 171393 (December 20, 2018).  These four cases nicely lay out some guiding legal...

September 11, 2019 Mark Kilduff, Audrey Marcello and Matthew Moynihan (Photos courtesy Ford Richardson) A year-old Richmond-based law firm is on the move. Ford Richardson, which was launched in May 2018 by former McCandlish Holton attorneys Scott Ford and Brian Richardson, last month expanded with an office in Hampton Roads. Manning the new office is Audrey Marcello, Mark Kilduff and Matthew Moynihan, all of whom had been with the law firm TaylorWalker in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The Hampton Roads office is a fourth outpost for Ford Richardson, which came out of the gate last year with locations in Richmond,...

Are you a business owner with 3 or more employees and thinking you will save the cost and not secure workers’ compensation insurance? Don’t do it! It’s not worth the risk. In a recent legal decision by the Virginia Workers’ Compensation—Lagos v. Nathaniel Rorls/Good Deal Tree Service & Firewood (JCN VA02000029120) entered on September 9, 2019 a civil penalty of $50,000 (the maximum permitted by statute) was assessed against an employer for failure to have workers’ compensation insurance. The Deputy Commissioner held that the employer’s “assertion that his business only had subcontractors to be a fiction.” Further, the Commission rejected...