REGISTER TODAY!

March 27–28, 2008
InterContinental Hotel on the “Magnificent Mile” Chicago, IL

Dear Colleague:

Don’t miss this National Program on National Trends, Emerging Issues and Cutting Edge Medical Disability Determinations Affecting All State Workers’ Compensation Laws. Please be sure to set aside March 26, 27, & 28, 2008, for this event. The program will take place at the InterContinental Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. During this two-day program the topics to be discussed involve current emerging legal and medical issues, all of which are of national importance, not only to practicing lawyers in the field of workers’ compensation (and related areas of the law), but to virtually all judges, and state legislative bodies, including the United States Congress.

We are very excited about this program since we have assembled some of the Nation’s most noted legal experts in the field of workers’ compensation, as well as cutting-edge practitioners in the field of occupational medicine. The quality and notoriety of the speakers who have agreed to present at this event are truly second to none.

If you practice in the areas of Administrative Law, Medicine, Health and Disability Law, Labor and Employment Law, State and Local governmental Law, Science and Technology, Toxic Torts, Insurance Regulation, Employee Benefits Law, Immigration Law, Personal Injury Litigation, and of course, Workers' Compensation Law you cannot afford to miss this once in a lifetime program.

Some of the topics to be covered include:

• Analysis of Disability v. Permanent Impairment, Together With the Concept of Apportionment, and the Increasing Use of the AMA Guidelines for Evaluating Permanent Impairment;

• Risk Management in Occupational Medicine: Cooperation and Conflict Between the Employer and the Physician;

• Volunteer Healthcare Practitioners’ Act & Other Disaster Relief Measures;

• Utilization of 21st Century Science and DNA Lab-Based Evidence in Workers’ Compensation and Civil Litigation, together with a tour of Cytokine Institute to be held on the campus of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago (UIC). This tour is arranged by the UIC College of Medicine and will be the first time litigators will be able to see, touch and smell the science that they have begun to rely upon, and/or have heard about. Get your hands wet. This could be a once in a lifetime experience!

• National Trends Affecting All State Workers’Compensation Systems;

• Crimes Arising Under Workers’ Compensation, Immigration, Wage & Hour, and Other Such Laws.

See you there,

Leonard Y. Nason,
Chair, TIPS Workers’ Compensation
and Employers’ Liability Law Committee

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CLE

“CUTTING THE GORDIAN KNOT, THE MOST UNKIND CUT OF ALL” DISABILITY V. PERMANENT IMPAIRMENT. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Apportionment is emerging in more states and important issues relating to the use of AMA Guidelines to rating permanent impairments are rampant. Currently, 34 states mandate the use of one or more of the AMA Guideline editions, 7 states allow the use of AMA Guidelines, and in 7 states they are not applicable. These important issues will be explained by our distinguished presenters.

RISK MANAGEMENT IN OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE: COOPERATION AND CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPLOYER AND THE PHYSICIAN—PART A
This session will discuss situations between employers or occupational physicians where there is potential legal risk to either party. Examples include risky denial of claims, egregious health and safety hazards, inappropriate selection of physicians, and delay in treatment review and approval. Risks to physicians include poor recognition of toxicologic emergencies and risk to public or co-workers from non-work related physical or medical conditions.

RISK MANAGEMENT IN OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE: COOPERATION AND CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPLOYER AND THE PHYSICIAN—PART B
"Sick Buildings”—Sick buildings constitute an important public health problem in the U.S. Potential causes are numerous and include mold, chemicals, and entrained vehicular exhaust. Adverse health effects result in decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, and chronic disabling illness and disease for employees. Learn what causes sick buildings, what the health effects of exposures are, what can be done to effectively treat ill employees, and what can be done to reduce potential third party liability.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND ANIMAL LAW UPDATE: VOLUNTEER HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS’ ACT AND OTHER DISASTER RELIEF MEASURES
With the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws’ passage of the Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act (UEVHPA), medical and veterinary professionals are subject to the same Good Samaritan laws in an emergency context. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the complexity of emergency management laws, and also review the new language on workers’ compensation recently adapted by NCCUSL, including its strengths and limitations. Issues such as average weekly wage, dual jurisdiction, going & coming rules, and more will be discussed.

UTILIZING 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE AND DNA-BASED EVIDENCE IN CIVIL LITIGATION—PART ONE
DNA and toxicogenomics-based research and protocols are rapidly reshaping and redefining the way the world and the business community perceive and manage the impact of chemical and toxic exposures, as well as determining what the future holds regarding human health and environmental consequences of such exposures. Be among the first to learn how these cutting-edge scientific methodologies may impact toxic tort and workers' compensation litigation and environmental, healthcare, chemical and hazard management. You will see how DNA-based evidence is becoming a useful tool in civil litigation. This program integrates both a didactic and an actual laboratory set of opportunities to gain the fundamentals of this emerging technology.

UTILIZING 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE AND DNA-BASED EVIDENCE IN CIVIL LITIGATION—PART TWO
DNA and toxicogenomics-based research and protocols are rapidly reshaping and redefining the way the world and the business community perceive and manage the impact of chemical and toxic exposures, as well as determining what the future holds regarding human health and environmental consequences of such exposures. Be among the first to learn how these cutting-edge scientific methodologies may impact toxic tort and workers' compensation litigation and environmental, healthcare, chemical and hazard management. You will see how DNA-based evidence is becoming a useful tool in civil litigation. This program integrates both a didactic and an actual laboratory set of opportunities to gain the fundamentals of this emerging technology.

A LITTLE DNA: ARE PRIVACY AND DISCRIMINATION ISSUES RAISED?
Explore this controversial area. Although no federal laws prohibit genetic testing, Congress passed a bill in April 2007 that bans employers from denying employees health insurance based on such tests. More than 20 states have laws that limit or prohibit employers from collecting genetic information. Is yours one of them? Does collecting an employee's DNA, even for a limited purpose, expose workers to discrimination? Does the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s $2.2 million settlement in a discrimination suit against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. in what was one of the first cases based on the federal agency's belief that genetic testing discriminates come into play?. In this case the railway was charged with violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by having an employee submit to a physical that included a blood test in order to look for predisposed medical conditions.

NATIONAL TRENDS AFFECTING ALL STATE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SYSTEMS—PART I
This segment will explore cost data and trends, how they affect workers, employers, and insurers. We will also include the topic of Permanent Partial Disability, and discuss the differences and similarities among states.

NATIONAL TRENDS AFFECTING ALL STATE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SYSTEMS—PART II
This segment will include a discussion on Medicare and Workers’ Compensation and National trends concerning compromise settlements of workers’ compensation claims. In this section, recent statutory and case law developments around the country concerning compromise settlements will be addressed. A special focus will be afforded to Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia, all jurisdictions that only in the mid-1990s started to permit such case resolutions.

CRIMES ARISING UNDER WORKERS’ COMPENSATION, IMMIGRATION, WAGE & HOUR, AND OTHER SUCH LAWS.
This session addresses the imminent need to protect U.S. borders against the entry of illegal immigrant workers, and those employers who facilitate such entry. Many employers engage in workers’ compensation premium fraud by concealing the employment of undocumented workers, subject such workers to sub-standard working conditions, which give rise to compensable industrial injuries, and engage in schemes designed to avoid payment of fair wages, payroll tax evasion, and other such crimes. Conversely, many well-intentioned employers require the skills of undocumented workers, without whom their businesses cannot be effectively run due to a shortage of willing, and/or skilled workers. This is a national issue requiring federal and state intervention to fairly address such problems.

PANEL DISCUSSION: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Professor Ed Welch
School of Labor & Industrial Relations
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan

Professor John F. Burton, Jr.
School of Management and Labor Relations
Rutgers University
Princeton, New Jersey

James A. Reiter
Charfoos, Reiter, Peterson, Jones, Dorland & Hébert, P.C.
Farmington Hills, Michigan

Deborah G. Kohl
The Law Offices of Deborah G. Kohl
Fall River, Massachusetts

Hank Patterson
Patterson Harkavy
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Thomas M. Domer
Marquette University Law School
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

WORKERS’ COMP MATTERS RADIO TALK SHOW
Alan Pierce will tape his internet based radio show Workers’ Comp Matters before a live seminar audience. Attorney Pierce’s guests will be Professors John Burton and Ed Welch. The show will be available for rebroadcast at www.legaltalknetwork.com the following day.

Hotel

InterContinental Hotel Deadline: February 26, 2008
Advance Registration Deadline: March 10, 2008

For Reservations call the InterContinental Hotel at 312/944-4100. A limited number of rooms have been blocked for program registrants of the TIPS WORKERS’ COMPENSATION PROGRAM at the InterContinental Chicago Hotel, 505 North Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611, for a hotel room rate of $219 single/double Main Building plus 15.4% tax. Rooms are available for Wednesday and Thursday nights only. For reservations, please call the InterContinental Chicago Hotel directly at 312/944-4100. The room block will be held until exhausted or until Tuesday, February 26, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. (CST). After the meeting specified hotel deadline, reservations will be confirmed based on availability. Please refer to the TIPS Workers’ Compensation Program when calling the hotel to make reservations. Hotel check-in is 3:00 p.m. and checkout is 12:00 p.m. (noon). All reservations must be guaranteed by credit card or deposit check. Individuals with guaranteed reservations must cancel their reservations by 24 hours prior to the scheduled day of arrival to avoid a one-night cancellation charge.

Overflow Hotel

For those of you who wish to spend the weekend in Chicago, we have a room block available at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, 301 E. North Water Street, Chicago, IL, 60611, at $279 per night for both Friday and Saturday night. For Reservations call 312-464-1000.   The Sheraton is a very short walk from the InterContinental (approximately 2 blocks). 

 

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Registration

You can Register online or download the registration form in the brochure and mail, or fax to 312/988-6230 by March 10, 2008. The registration fee includes admission to the program, course materials, continental breakfast, breaks, and welcome reception. If you wish to have your name appear on the pre-registration list distributed at the program, all registration forms must be received no later than the registration deadline of March 10, 2008. Registration reservations will be confirmed in writing within 10 business days.

Register Online Today!

* For questions regarding this program, please contact: Donald Quarles at 312/988-5708.

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