Recent Survey of Worker's Compensation Law

Abstract

of this provision, an employee could maintain a civil action against his employer, worker’s compensation administrator, or carrier where the employee was alleging an independent tort, fraud, or gross negligence. 4 Since the effective date of the bad faith provision, practitioners have observed an increasing number of applications for adjustment of claims that allege an act of bad faith, a lack of diligence, or an independent tort falling within the Board’s jurisdiction. In 1999, the courts began construing this provision. 5 In those decisions, the courts addressed the retroactive applicability of the provision, the constitutionality of the provision, and the meaning of the terms adjusting or settling an independent tort. In 2000, the courts’ focus returned to the constitutionality issue in Sims v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.