Workers' Compensation Law: A Context and Practice Casebook (Context and Practice Series)

This book serves as the perfect marriage between workers' compensation theory and practice. While the book covers most of the traditional areas of workers' compensation doctrine, it also dwells at strategic points to reflect upon the letter of the law. It dares to question doctrine and―more importantly―encourages even the beginning student of workers' compensation to do more than passively receive rules. The author draws on his real world experience as a former injured worker and workers' compensation attorney, and supplements that experience with his theoretical perspective as a teacher and scholar of administrative and employment law. The student is guided through cases by the use of probing introductory questions, reflection sections at the conclusion of many of the cases, and running commentary and "interrogation" by way of text boxes at critical junctures in the cases. The student becomes acquainted with a fictional injured worker, Ann Smith, early in the book and has the opportunity to reflect upon legally significant developments as her case becomes increasingly complex. In the final, problem-solving chapter titled "In the Law Office," students are introduced to materials from actual cases, demonstrating even more concretely how the principles they are learning are applied in practice. The resulting product is a natural fit with other titles in the Context and Practice Series. Students are introduced to a body of law through explicit engagement with it, and through exercises and commentary meant to refine their understanding through contextual interaction with black letter rules.

The second edition takes up issues at the cutting edge of workers' compensation law, adding a chapter on the constitutional implications of the adequacy (or lack thereof) of benefits; the emergence since 2013 of a workers' compensation "opt out" movement; and an introductory discussion of the intensifying interaction between state workers' compensation law and ERISA preemption.

This book is part of the Context and Practice Series, edited by Michael Hunter Schwartz, Professor of Law and Dean of the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific.

Michael Duff is a Professor of Law and Co-Director of the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law at Saint Louis University School of Law.