News & Publications

On Monday, April 17, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it received approximately 199,000 H-1B petitions during the first five business days of April (April 3-7, 2017) exceeding the statutory cap on available H-1B slots. As a result, USCIS conducted a random computer generated selection process, or “lottery,” to determine which H-1B petitions filed during this period would be accepted.

By: Eva C. Roffis, Esq.

Typically, an injury sustained by a worker at a social or recreational event is not compensable. However, numerous factors must be examined in order to determine whether the claimant’s accident arose out of the employment.

On January 27, 2017, the new administration issued an Executive Order which suspends "entry into the United States" of individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days (and possibly longer). 

By: Amanda Tapscott, Esq.

Claimants are arguing that de facto awards apply in their claims with increasing frequency.

By: The Worker's Compensation Team

When we think of workers’ compensation in Virginia, we typically think of injuries by accident.  Virginia law instructs us to look for a specific and identifiable event as the cause of an injury.  That being said, there are situations where a person is entitled to compensation for injuries that lack any type of identifiable event, these are known as “Occupational Diseases.”   

Two Long-Established Richmond-Based Law Firms Announce Merger

Richmond-based law firms McCandlish Holton and Morris & Morris announce a merger of the two firms, to take effect December 1, 2016.  The newly combined firm will have 39 lawyers, offering clients a full range of legal services with specialties in business and corporate law, commercial real estate law, civil litigation in state and federal courts, workers' compensation, products liability, healthcare, and immigration.  Both firms have had a presence in Virginia in excess of twenty-five years.

Amanda Tapscott, a Director in our Workers' Compensation practice group, was recently named chair of the Worker's Compensation Section of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys (VADA).

By: The Workers' Compensation Team

Long-term opioid abuse has become a front page issue throughout the country, as doctors, claimants, insurance companies, and employers struggle with the drastic increase in opioid prescriptions in recent years and the potentially disastrous effects of these medications.  A quick glance at recent statistics is alarming, as there have been 4,400 deaths in Virginia linked to opioids since 2007.  

By: The Workers’ Compensation Practice Group

There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding the Commission’s ability to infer facts, particularly from the standpoint of the initial compensability of a claim. From the defense perspective, the willingness of the Commission to infer facts to support causation/compensability has been a cause for concern. Recently, the Court of Appeals addressed a Full Commission finding that the claimant’s injury arose out of his employment, based on an inference made by the Full Commission, in the case of United Airlines, Inc. v. Bryan Andrew Taylor, an unpublished Opinion.

By: The Workers' Compensation Practice Group

On December 15, 2015, the Full Commission released its Opinion in Stiltner v. Pike Electric, JCN VA00001006840 (December 15, 2015), clarifying one of the exceptions to the coming and going rule. It is well-established that an accidental injury sustained when an employee is going to or leaving from his or her place of employment has not occurred in the course of the employment and is not therefore compensable.