One of the clever (though immoral) defenses being used by employers now days is to set up a small office in an employer friendly state and then claim that approval of the employees hiring comes from that office. The call this defense “The Last Act Necessary” because the employer wants to claim the location of an employment with the state wherein the last act to confirm the hiring status occurred. Why would they do that? Simple reason: so they can get away with paying an injured employee as little as possible and force him/her to receive treatment only from the company doctor.

I recently represented an employee who applied for his job in Illinois…was interviewed in Illinois…was trained in Illinois… worked only out of an Illinois trucking depot…was dispatched from an Illinois dispatcher and was paid in Illinois. The company tried to claim that he was an Indiana employee because his final approval for employment had to be confirmed by the employer’s Indiana office. The employee was never told this and had no interaction with the Indiana office for 2 years before he was injured. The employer wanted the claim in Indiana because the benefits paid under Indiana are some of the worst in the country and the employer (usually the insurance company) gets to decide who will treat the employee and how much treatment he needs. That won’t happen to our clients if we can do anything about it…so we went to trial. We are currently awaiting the Arbitrator’s decision and, win or lose, will post the result as soon as it is received.

In a similar case, the employer argued that a traveling employee hired in Missouri was a Missouri employee even though he worked exclusively in Illinois, was licensed as a plumber only in Illinois and was actually injured in Illinois. Again, we had to take that case to trial. We won.

At the Law Office of Keith Short we aren’t afraid of the court room and we won’t roll over and accept less benefits than you deserve. Call us for representation or if you simply have questions about your rights.