The Albany Law Review has now posted a landmark law review article by Grey & Grey managing partner Robert Grey titled “The Rise and Fall of Workers’ Compensation in New York.” The article will be in print in the summer of 2023 and is available online at https://www.albanylawreview.org/article/73847-the-rise-and-fall-of-workers-compensation-in-new-york and here.
The article traces the arc of New York’s workers’ compensation system from its creation in 1914 to the present day. One key observation is that although the original principle of the workers’ compensation law was that employers would bear the cost of workplace injury and illness and their benefit was protection from personal injury lawsuits, in recent decades employers have reneged on that bargain by trying – often successfully – to slash worker benefits inside the system while still being insulated from tort liability.
The article also observes that the Courts have been the primary shield for workers against a series of administrative attacks on worker benefits. It proposes fundamental changes to the system to improve both access to benefits and the quality of benefits for injured workers in order to restore the law’s original balance.
Previous law review articles by Mr. Grey include “The Experience of Immigrants and Low-Wage Workers in the new York Workers’ Compensation System” (Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice, 2020); “The Use of Medical Impairment, Functional Loss and Vocational Factors to Determine Loss of Wage Earning Capacity Under the 2012 Guidelines for Permanent Impairment” (Syracuse Law Review, 2013) and “Update on the Status of Workers’ Compensation Liens in the Settlement of Motor Vehicle Accident Cases” (Journal of the Suffolk Academy of Law, 1994).
At Grey & Grey, we are dedicated not only to advancing the rights our clients have under existing law, but also to improving the law to help them and other injured and disabled workers now and in the future. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to call any of our offices or to email us at info@greyandgrey.com.