Valerie Johnson is speaking at the 2009 annual conference of the Workers Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WLIG), to be held in Denver from October 16-19. WILG is a national non-profit membership organization dedicated to representing the interests of injured workers.
Valerie is presenting on the “Hop Topics” panel, and will be discussing recent developments concerning the representation of undocumented workers with claims for workers’ compensation. The paper being presented, “Benefits for Undocumented Workers and Obstacles in the Way,” written by Valerie and Narendra Ghosh, is here. Scroll below for a summary of the paper:
Summary: In the past couple of years, as the issue of immigration has remained unresolved at a national level, questions surrounding undocumented workers and their entitlement to workers’ compensation has continued to percolate in a number of states. The fundamental question of whether undocumented workers are covered by workers’ compensation laws is still being raised in several states. And, even when undocumented workers are generally covered, thorny questions regarding eligibility for particular types of benefits, discovery disputes, and the ethical rules often arise. This paper reviews several recent decisions concerning undocumented immigrants and workers’ compensation that illustrate these varied issues.