Workers' Compensation Law Commons^™

Say “No” To Discrimination, “Yes” To Accommodation: Why States Should Prohibit Discrimination Of Workers Who Use Cannabis For Medical Purposes, Anne Marie Lofaso, Lakyn D. Cecil

Seattle University Law Review

This Article addresses the question of how the law should treat medical cannabis in the employment context. Using Colorado as a primary example, we argue that states such as Colorado should amend their constitutions and legislate to provide employment protections for employees who are registered medical cannabis cardholders or registered caregivers.

Part I briefly traces the legal regulation of cannabis from an unregulated medicine known as cannabis to a highly regulated illicit substance known as marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. Our travail through this history reveals, unsurprisingly, an increasing demonization of cannabis throughout the twentieth century. That socio-legal demonization …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Three Out Of Four Economists Recommend Raising The Minimum Wage! A Closer Look At The Debate Surrounding Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance, Erica Bergmann

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will discuss the implications of a high minimum wage by examining the debate around the Seattle Ordinance with a particular focus on the IFA lawsuit. To analyze the possible impacts of the Seattle Ordinance, current and historical arguments both in support of and in opposition to minimum wage laws are considered. This Note ultimately concludes that the U.S. District Court rightly denied the IFA’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would have frustrated Seattle’s experiment before it began. Seattle’s plan to implement a $15 minimum wage, and similar experiments, should be permitted to proceed because the problem of …

Toward A Federal Constitutional Right To Employment, R. George Wright

Seattle University Law Review

This Article outlines an argument for a federal constitutional right to employment. The Article begins by examining the harms and costs of involuntary long-term unemployment. It then discusses the historical contributions to our understanding of the value of work, before drawing on several well-established jurisprudential distinctions to explain why, and to justify initial optimism regarding a constitutional employment right.

Subminimum Or Subpar? A Note In Favor Of Repealing The Fair Labor Standards Act's Subminimum Wage Program, Melia Preedy

Seattle University Law Review

This Note argues for the repeal of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which continues to perpetuate a system allowing employers to pay less than minimum, or “subminimum,” wage to certain employees with disabilities. The Section 14(c) program is a relic of policy leftover from the 1930s and does not help the disabled community, but rather rests on the presumption that persons with disabilities never progress. In light of recent House Resolution 3086, Congress went against the current trend of encouraging maximum independence and equal opportunities for persons with disabilities and instead upheld the subminimum wage program; …

Employer Liability Under The Third Party Provision Of The Washington Industrial Insurance Act: The Dual Capacity And Dual Persona Doctrines In Evans V. Thompson, Melissa M. Jackson

Seattle University Law Review

Most workers' compensation schemes are designed to provide a swift and sure source of benefits to injured workers by placing on employers the risks and burdens of modern industry. In keeping with this policy, Washington's Industrial Insurance Act2 (IIA) requires injured workers to relinquish the right to sue at common law for damages sustained on the job, and it requires employers to accept liability for a measure of damages set out by the statute. However, if a worker's injuries are caused by the negligence of a third person who is not in the worker's same employ, the IIA's third-party provision …

Interpretation Of The Statutory Modification Of Joint And Several Liability: Resisting The Deconstruction Of Tort Reform, Gregory C. Sisk

Seattle University Law Review

This Article defends RCW 4.22.070 and opposes the deconstruction of legislative tort reform. The Article’s premise is that the legislature did indeed intend to accomplish a significant reform of the liability system and to take a long, purposeful stride toward the implementation of comparative fault as applied to all parties in tort litigation. The Article concludes that the legislature adopted language that adequately, if sometimes imperfectly, achieves that purpose. The Article discusses the following: the meaning of “fault” as applicable through RCW 4.22.070; the nature of the entities to whom fault must be allocated; the responsibility for raising the culpability …

Osha Regulation Of Low-Exposure Carcinogens: A New Approach To Judicial Analysis Of Scientific Evidence, Victor B. Flatt

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will examine the legal framework governing OSHA risk regulation, the scientific studies and evidence that the judiciary currently accepts for challenging or supporting this regulation, and the effect of this standard of judicial acceptance on OSHA regulation. This Article will then compare the present state of judicial analysis of scientific evidence with alternative analyses in order to determine the most effective means of promoting a level of worker safety regulation that creates the greatest benefit to society within the legal framework established by Congress.

Curing Washington's Occupational Disease Statute: Dennis V. Departmentof Labor And Industries, Lance Palmer

Seattle University Law Review

This Note focuses on the current state of occupational disease coverage under the workers' compensation system in Washington, and will review the legislative history, the administrative interpretation, and the judicial development of the occupational disease law. Further, after setting forth the broad policy goals behind the Industrial Insurance Act and outlining Washington's occupational disease statute, this Note will conclude with a discussion of the supreme court's analytical framework for a fair, workable, and uniform method for adjudicating occupational disease claims in Washington.

Should Representation Elections Be Governed By Principles Or Expediency?, Mary Ellen Krug, Michele Gammer

Seattle University Law Review

Should the National Labor Relations Board' set aside representation elections because one or more parties has tried to influence the voting with misrepresentation of facts or law? Although the Board is responsible for ensuring fair elections, in Midland National Life Insurance Co. it embraced a rule inconsistent with this statutory responsibility, rejecting the Hollywood Ceramics Co. rule and narrowly limiting Board review of campaign misrepresentations. This Article examines the Midland standard in light of the Board's statutory duty to protect the right of employees to a free and fair choice of collective bargaining representatives. The Article reviews the historical development …

An Observation About Comparable Worth, George Schatzki

Seattle University Law Review

The ultimate legal question is: Does Title VII incorporate the comparable worth doctrine? The courts are saying, "No." Their reasoning is, at best, unpersuasive. Indeed, often their reasoning is nothing more than mere conclusion. Given what I have described briefly as the legal arguments pro and con, one can easily understand that so long as Griggs remains a part of the Title VII scene, there is a rational but not compelling argument to incorporate comparable worth into the Act. How, then, does a court decide? The following discussion is offered not as an example of desirable or undesirable judicial analysis. …

Glass V. Stahl Specialty Company: Reconciling Third Party's Contribution Rights With Employer's Immunity Under Workers' Compensation, Karin Nyrop

Seattle University Law Review

This note argues that the correct resolution of the tension between the employer’s immunity and the third party’s right of contribution requires balancing the interests of all parties. The employer has an interest in retaining the workers’ compensation law’s exclusive no-fault recovery system; the third party tortfeasor seeks to avoid shouldering the entire liability of another at-fault tortfeasor capable of contribution. At the same time, the employee has a right to full and speedy compensation, and the state has an interest in maintaining the financial stability of its accident fund. This note explores the policies and legal arguments supporting the …

Miller V. Northside Danzi Construction Company: Immunity, The Contractor-Under Clause And Alaska's Workers' Compensation Act, Timothy R. Gosselin

Seattle University Law Review

In Miller v. Northside Danzi Construction Co., "the Alaska Supreme Court held that a general contractor," required by Alaska's Workers' Compensation Act to pay compensation to an uninsured subcontractor's injured employee, is not immune from liability at common law for the same injuries. Interpreting narrowly the Act's "employer" definition, the court prohibited the general contractor from asserting the exclusive liability defense granted to the primary employer who pays compensation to its injured employee, and thus permitted the injured worker to claim awards under the Act and independently at common law. By allowing the injured employee recovery from the contractor …