Originally from:
Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States - 5th Edition - Hardcover
Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States - 5th Edition - Electronic
CHAPTER 8
EXTRA-TERRITORIAL SUBROGATION
§ 8.1 Extra-Territorial Subrogation
In today's national and global economy, employees are routinely
traveling in the course and scope of their employment throughout the
country, and are getting injured in states other than the state where
the employer is based. Employers with multi-state operations are
regularly encountering workers who are being injured and claiming
benefits in states other than the state where their home office is
located. When attempting to subrogate for workers' compensation
benefits, this can lead to a wide array of confusing results.
Most state workers' compensation laws are extra-territorial. This
means that an employee in the enabling state (the state in which he
was hired and under whose laws he recovers benefits) who suffers an
occupational injury or disease while outside of its boundaries in a
forum state (the state in which the worker is injured and files a thirdparty
action), is still eligible for workers' compensation benefits
under the laws of the enabling state. In some circumstances, the
employee who is injured in another state may choose to collect
benefits either in the enabling state or in the forum state.
One state may give an employer and its workers' compensation
carrier first money rights of recovery (such as Texas) while another
state may disallow your subrogation interest unless and until the
worker is “made whole” (such as Georgia). Knowing which state's
subrogation law to apply is critical in evaluating your subrogation
potential and recovering your subrogation interest.
If workers have a choice they will usually choose the workers'
compensation laws of the most generous state when filing a workers'
compensation claim in a multi-state context. Which state law is
applied in a multi-state workers' compensation scenario may also
mean the difference between whether or not an employer can be sued
or the employee is limited to workers' compensation as his exclusive
remedy against the employer.
CHAPTER 8
EXTRA-TERRITORIAL SUBROGATION
§ 8.1 Extra-Territorial Subrogation
§ 8.2 Conflicts of Law
§ 8.3 The Larson Rule
§ 8.4 Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws
§ 8.5 Full Faith and Credit
§ 8.6 Extra-Territorial Reciprocity Agreements
§ 8.7 The "Payable under This Chapter" Issue
Gary Wickert is an insurance trial lawyer and is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on insurance subrogation. He is the author of several subrogation books and legal treatises and is a national and international speaker and lecturer on subrogation and motivational topics. Mr. Wickert is also a politician in Wisconsin, serving his fourth term as Town Supervisor in the Township of Cedarburg. After 15 years as the youngest managing partner in the history of the 30-lawyer Houston law firm of Hughes, Watters & Askanase, L.L.P., he returned to his native Wisconsin in 1998 and co-founded the firm of Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. He oversees a National Recovery Program which includes a network of nearly 300 contracted subrogation law firms in all 50 states, Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom and boasts recoveries of more than $500 million in recoveries and credits for more than 250 insurance companies. Gary Wickert is also a commercial fiction author and his latest political thriller, Dark Redemption (Tudor Publishers), is available on Amazon.com.
Licensed in both Texas and Wisconsin, Mr. Wickert is double board-certified in both personal injury law and civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is also nationally certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA), for whom he has both written and graded the product liability questions contained on the NBTA national certification exam taken by trial lawyers around the country. For nearly twenty-five years, he has also served as an expert witness on subrogation and insurance related issues and has been consulted by insurance carriers, lawyers, and legislative bodies from several states. He is a licensed arbitrator and has attended more than 750 mediations in more than 30 different states. He is one of only a few lawyers to have ever represented a client before the United States Supreme Court on a subrogation issue, and was named one of Law & Politics and Milwaukee Super Lawyers magazine's Super Lawyers for 2005, 2006, and 2008. For a complete resume on Gary L. Wickert, see Appendix A-13 of this book.
