Whenever a legal dispute arises as to insurance coverage, the court will evaluate policy language to determine if a specific cause of loss constitutes a covered event under the terms of that policy.
When workers compensation and workplace violence intersect, it must generally be shown that the loss occurred in the scope of employment and while the employee was working.
Some claims, however, involve gray areas raising questions as to whether coverage is invoked. This is particularly true in scenarios where the injured worker played a role in inciting, participating in or provoking the violence.
No cookie-cutter approach should be utilized in the investigation and adjustment of these losses, as they oftentimes involve complex fact patterns.
A thorough analysis should be conducted when workplace violence claims are reported so as to mitigate the risk of dreaded statutory or common law bad faith actions, amongst other concerns.
Workplace Violence, Defined
There is plenty of room for plaintiff’s counsel to assert a rejected occupational violence-related workers compensation claim was wrongfully denied by the insurer.
Workplace violence manifests in a broad range of activities beyond the deadly highly publicized active shooter episodes some automatically think of while considering this topic. Unwanted physical contact is not necessary to make a showing that workplace violence has occurred.
For instance, the National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH), an agency of the...
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