Workers Comp Matters
Workers Comp Matters is hosted by Attorney Alan S. Pierce, the only Legal Talk Network program that focuses entirely on the people and the law in workers compensation cases. Nationally recognized Trial Attorney, expert and author, Alan S. Pierce is a leader committed to making a difference when workers comp matters.
Episodes
June 2, 2025 • 36 mins
Let’s talk about the “exclusive remedy,” what it means, why Workers’ Comp matters, and the exceptions. The concept of exclusive remedy is based on the principle that in exchange for care and benefits, a worker injured on the job may surrender some options for additional remedies.
If you’re covered by Workers’ Comp, the ability to challenge the employer in court for injuries and pain and suffering may be limited. Workers’ Comp is ...
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April 29, 2025 • 31 mins
These are unprecedented times for the rights of immigrant workers in the United States. The current political climate has thrown a wrench into the Workers’ Compensation system when it comes to workers without documentation. Understanding the system can help.
Guest Enrique Flores is the founder of the Flores Law Group in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a leader in immigrant workers’ rights. The son of immigrant parents, he says immi...
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March 31, 2025 • 37 mins
Hosts Alan and Judson Pierce reflect on nearly two decades of the Workers Comp Matters podcast with an examination of unusual or bizarre claims and cases.
A reminder, while some of these cases may have puzzling or humorous elements on their face, it’s never funny when a person is hurt. We may wonder what people were thinking when these incidents happened, but we can learn from each case. For starters, always expect the unexpected...
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February 25, 2025 • 34 mins
Guest Dr. Peter Yeh is an orthopedic surgeon with more than 15 years in medicine treating shoulder, upper arm, and knee issues. The stuff that happens at the job.
When it comes to injured workers, they’re not that much different than an injured athlete. In both cases, the things they do can be a big part of their identity. And getting back to work is imperative. It’s not just physical, it’s mental. We all have different layers of ...
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January 21, 2025 • 32 mins
Being a good lawyer is a lot about great storytelling. Unfortunately, that’s often not taught in law school. Facts build the case, but effective storytelling wins the case.
Guest Robert Mattson is an experienced corporate communications leader and coach. But his skills go beyond that. He acts in and writes plays. He is also the founder and principal at Intrigue Communications and Coaching. He helps people not simply communicate bu...
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December 24, 2024 • 36 mins
AI may be changing the Workers’ Compensation insurance industry, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of a personal touch. Guest Michael Kelley leads the HUB International claims adjustment team in New England and explains how bringing cases to a satisfying conclusion for all involved can be as much of an art as a science.
There’s room for both automation and technology and face-to-face discussion, understanding the nuances of...
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December 2, 2024 • 38 mins
Guest Michael C. Duff, professor at the St. Louis University School of Law, explores the evolving field of mental health injuries in the Workers’ Comp world.
Stress and workplace trauma is real, and recognition of these injuries is developing, but there are still complicating factors. Did workplace stress cause a heart attack, or was there underlying heart damage? What constitutes post-traumatic stress, and at what point did that ...
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October 29, 2024 • 30 mins
Guest Bogdan Savych, a senior policy analyst at the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), discusses his new paper, written with David Neumark, entitled “Impact of Attorney Representation on Workers’ Compensation Payments.”
WCRI studied the impact of attorney representation when it comes to indemnity payments (income replacement benefits) for injured workers in what, on its face, is supposed to be a straightforward Worker...
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September 17, 2024 • 37 mins
Our military and public service veterans deserve our best. Guest Alex Dell is a longtime Workers’ Compensation and Veterans Affairs compensation attorney, often representing injured public servants or military veterans. He’s also a former Division One hockey referee. In both roles, Dell explains how taking a broad view is crucial.
The key, he says, is to avoid “tunnel vision.” Learn to see issues from multiple angles. Take in the ...
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August 30, 2024 • 36 mins
In this special episode, co-host Alan Pierce shares his thoughts on an auspicious occasion, celebrating his 50th year practicing Workers’ Compensation law. Alan’s son and law partner, Judson Pierce, interviews his father.
Fifty years of anything is a long time. Alan passed the bar in 1974 and began practicing Workers’ Comp law. He’s seen a lot. Incremental changes seem to pass slowly, but over half a century, Alan has had a front ...
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July 22, 2024 • 36 mins
How will AI help us help workers injured on the job? What voids will AI help us fill as we work to help people get back to work and life? Treatment authorizations, document delivery, and automation of mundane tasks such as signature acceptance help an injured person get back on the job faster and speed operations for the adjuster. Let’s work together.
As guests from digital communications platform Gain Life Tycho Speekenbrink and ...
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June 28, 2024 • 36 mins
Guest Claire C. Muselman’s recent publication in WorkersCompensation.com encourages adjusters to take a new look at Workers’ Compensation’s goals. Maybe we should be less skeptical of workers and show empathy. In other words: Be Nice.
We all have biases. Sometimes they get in the way and keep us from caring. From social media to traditional learning to storytelling and anecdotes, how do those biases influence our assumptions when ...
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May 30, 2024 • 36 mins
Let’s talk about alternative medicine and coverage under Workers’ Comp’s hodgepodge of rules.
Guest Maya Rashid is a recent graduate of Penn State Law and the winner of the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers’ student writing competition with her article “Revitalizing Recovery: Exploring Workers’ Compensation Coverage of Alternative Medicine.”
Fighting for clients seeking treatment through alternative medicine under Workers’ ...
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April 30, 2024 • 30 mins
When workers are recovering from a workplace injury, there are psychosocial factors, mental factors, which can impede the recovery from physical injuries. Things such as a worker’s recovery expectations, fear of pushing too hard or performing activities that may restrict the benefits of physical therapy and hamper recovery, or even new negative feeling about their job and perceived injustices over how a supervisor or employer react...
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March 26, 2024 • 34 mins
This episode opens a new topic for the Workers Comp Matters podcast: repetitive stress injuries, sometimes referred to cumulative trauma, acquired on the job. What happens to someone when someone develops a workplace injury, physical or mental, that can’t be traced back to a single, isolated event? Or what if the injury is the result of cumulative trauma developed under multiple employers?
Bodily wear and tear, the result of daily...
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February 28, 2024 • 42 mins
The “times they are a changing” in the world of Workers’ Compensation, a system developed when the relationship between workers and employers were more clearly defined. Guest Emily Spieler is an accomplished author, former professor, practicing attorney, and government official with a career that spans the space of workers’ rights, safety, and compensation.
The 100+ year old system of Workers’ Comp has evolved and continues to cha...
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January 16, 2024 • 39 mins
A person getting hurt at the workplace is never funny. But it can be instructional to examine some of the strangest ways people manage to become injured at work. Hear about some “interesting” cases.
A schoolteacher whose leg “fell asleep” while he sat in a classroom falls trying to stand up. He broke his femur. Is he entitled to compensation from his employer?
An Amtrak baggage handler was visiting the restroom when someone tosse...
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December 19, 2023 • 39 mins
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is 27 years old. For better or worse, it was designed to protect patients. But in reality, it has also hampered attorneys in their quest for medical records critical to ensuring fair compensation for injured workers.
Guest Jared Vishney is the founder and CEO of the medical record retrieval technology company Arctrieval. He says most firms wait more than three months f...
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November 21, 2023 • 31 mins
Did we ever learn a lot during the once-in-a-generation health event that was COVID! Guest Dr. Bogdan Savych of the Workers Comp Research Institute (WCRI) is a policy analyst who is studying the lasting effects of the illness, as well as lingering cases of Long Covid.
What is “Long COVID?” How big is the problem? Is it even real? Is a pandemic an occupational disease? Savych is investigating who should pay and who decides how much...
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October 17, 2023 • 32 mins
Our understanding of work and workplaces may have been forever changed by the COVID pandemic. Many workers today are working from their own homes or conducting meetings by phone during their occasional trip to an office.
When you’re working from home and slip and injure yourself in your own bathroom during the workday, who is responsible? If you are hit by a careless driver while conducting a business meeting by phone in your car, ...
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