Your employee gets electrocuted when his mobile scaffold comes in contact with an overhead power line. His widow files a work comp claim and a civil suit against your company. The Workers' Compensation Statute says it is the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries, but the Overhead Powerline Safety Act allows for civil liability "notwithstanding any other law to the contrary." Does your insurer have to defend the civil claim under the Part B Employers' Liability coverage of your Workers' Compensation insurance policy?

An employee is seriously injured when a piece of machinery that was being installed at the plant ceiling was dropped by two careless employees. The accident happened in 2008. Suit was filed in 2012 against the co-employees and the supervisors and the plant manager and the employer. What about workers' compensation? They can't do this can they?

Your plant manager had a heart attack at his desk and then suffered a stroke while in the hospital. It doesn't look like he will ever be able to come back to work. He has suffered from congestive heart issues for the last several years, but the heart attack happened after he had just been reprimanded for not getting a new production line up and running by a deadline. He had been complaining to his secretary about the incredible stress he was under recently due to that project deadline. Is this work comp or civil or both?

The ability of an employee to sue his employer for a workplace injury should be very limited in Missouri. Our Workers' Compensation statute contains an exclusive remedy provision that should place most employee injuries before the Missouri Division of Workers' Compensation. Because of some recent changes to the Workers' Compensation Statute and the wording of some other statutes and regulations there are times when civil cases are available against an injured worker's employer. There are now times when you can sue a co-employee for his or her negligence in causing an injury. The availability of a civil Employers' Liability action can depend on when it was filed, what state of mind is alleged against the co-employee and what other statutes might be implicated beyond Workers' Compensation. We deal with these cases every day. Our lawyers have charted out the minefield and are ready to lead the employer through the dangers no matter what they might turn out to be.