Delaware Workers’ Compensation Law
Latest Update
A Hazard Distinct: DE Supremes Reject COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease
The Delaware Supreme Court affirms that, under the claimant’s facts, COVID-19 is not an Occupational Disease under Section 2361, where COVID-19 was not a natural incident to the claimant’s peculiar occupation and COVID-19 was not distinct from the employment in general.
July 3, 2024
Old MacDonald Had A Truck… & Its Driver Falls Under Farm Laborer Exception
The Industrial Accident Board finds that Farm Laborer Exclusion of Section 2307(b) applies and bars a claimant from workers’ compensation coverage, where the claimant’s employment was integral to the employer’s farm operations and its truck driving was limited to farming objectives.
Jan. 29. 2024
I Get a Kick Out of You: Superior Court Kicks Back IAB Denial of Surgery
The Delaware Superior Court holds the Industrial Accident Board did not apply the correct legal standard when determining the necessity and reasonableness of a claimant’s surgery and further, did not properly apply the Health Care Practice Guidelines; thus, the Board’s decision was reversed and remanded.
Oct. 13, 2023
Cassandra Faline Roberts, Esquire
Cassandra Roberts is a director with Elzufon Austin & Mondell with 40 years in practice devoted to achieving an expertise in Delaware Workers’ Compensation Law. Appearing regularly before the Delaware Industrial Accident Board on behalf of employers and insurance carriers, she is the Editor of the Delaware Case Law Update, a quarterly newsletter highlighting recent decisions of the Industrial Accident Board; she has been cited by The Best Lawyers in America for Workers’ Compensation for 2003 through 2022. Cassandra was named one of Delaware’s Top Lawyers by Delaware Today magazine in 2001 through 2022 (top vote-getter for employer defense 2019 through 2022) and has the distinction of being the only practitioner ever named a “Top Lawyer” for both the injured worker and the employer in the same survey (2001). She has served as the Delaware Delegate for Larson’s National Workers’ Compensation Advisory Board since 2009 and since that time has also maintained a blog on issues of DE Workers’ Compensation Law, The Delaware Detour & Frolic, delivering news from the Industrial Accident Board and appellate courts with wit and whimsy. Cassandra is a founding Executive Board Member of the Randy J. Holland Delaware Workers’ Compensation American Inn of Court and the Editor of its latest venture, the Supreme Cuisine cookbook. She is married with two daughters, Jocelyn & Caroline (also a lawyer), and in her spare time she likes to bake, fundraise, play with her granddaughter Viviana Cassandra . . . and read case law.
Caroline A. Kaminski, Esquire
Caroline Kaminski is an associate at Nitsche & Fredricks, where she specializes in Delaware Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Law. Caroline received her juris doctor from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law in May of 2019. Upon graduation from law school, Caroline served as a judicial law clerk to the President Judge of the Superior Court of the State of Delaware. Caroline is the Co-Chair of the Randy J. Holland Delaware Joint Inns of Court, and an active member of the Randy J. Holland Workers’ Compensation American Inn of Court and the Richard S. Rodney American Inn of Court. After her admission to the bar, Caroline took on the role as manager and co-author of the Delaware Detour & Frolic. In her spare time, she likes to cheer on her Auburn Tigers and Villanova Wildcats.