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Self-Study

2021 Annual Workers' Compensation Institute


Practice Area:
Workers' Comp
Format:
Audio and Video


Description

UPDATE FROM THE DIVISION
Speakers: Colleen Joern Vetter, Division Director, Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation, Jefferson City; Harsh Bhasin, Project Director, Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation 
This session will include a Division Business Operational Update as well as a Modernization Program Update.

SO YOU LOST? SHOULD YOU APPEAL? PRACTICE BEFORE THE LABOR COMMISSION AND THE COURTS
Speaker: Patrick J. PlatterThe Law Firm of Neale & Newman LLP, Springfield 
This program covers appeals necessary when parties lose at the Division. Appeals before the Labor Commission and appellate courts have different purposes and procedures. This program covers both, with subjects ranging from pre-appeal evaluation to final briefing and oral argument.

COVID-19 & WORKERS' COMPENSATION
Speaker: Steve A. McManus,
McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips, PC, St. Louis; Bob Mandava, Hammond and Shinners, PC, St. Louis

What you will learn:

  • Is a claimant’s positive diagnosis a compensable work accident?
  • How will it be prosecuted/defended?
  • Impact of vaccines on work comp claims
  • Impact on working remotely.

CASE LAW UPDATE
Speakers: Michael F. Banahan
Evans & Dixon, LLC, St. Louis; B. Michael KorteThe Korte Law Firm, Webster Groves; Cara L. Harris, Missouri Attorney General's Office, Springfield 

UP IN THE (SMOKE FILLED) AIR . . . MEDICAL MARIJUANA'S UNCERTAIN IMPACT ON MO WORKERS' COMPENSATION  
Speaker: Matthew W. Murphy
Vessell Bridges Murphy Law Offices, Columbia 
This presentation will focus on Missouri Medical Marijuana Law, Amendment XIV of the Missouri Constitution as well as recent changes to Chapter 287’s drug penalty provisions (Section 287.120.6 RSMo.)  Effective August 28, 2017, MO changed several provisions of Chapter 287.  One of the more significant changes involved that application of the drug penalty provisions to include a presumption of penalty upon showing of a positive screen for illegal drugs.   The following year, Missouri voters approved an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that provided for the legal production, possession and consumption of marijuana for medical purposes.  This discussion will dive into the two provisions and flesh out the interplay between the two bodies of law.

ELIMINATION OF BIAS 
Speaker: Kristy A. Lambert
, Legal Counsel, Missouri Commission on Human Rights, Kansas City
The vast majority of the information humans process is done unconsciously. The steps we take together and individually are important in reducing bias and encouraging diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession. This segment will help participants learn to identify several implicit biases; understand multiple impacts of bias on justice and in the legal profession, particularly based on sex and race; and gain knowledge of how to help interrupt bias in the legal profession.

Note: This material qualifies for self-study credit only. Pursuant to Regulation 15.04.5, a lawyer may receive up to six hours of self-study credit in a reporting year. Self-study programs do not qualify for GAL Certification, ethics, elimination of bias or Kansas credit.

Materials

Speaker

Michael Banahan's Profile

Michael Banahan Related Seminars and Products

Evans & Dixon, LLC


Michael Banahan has extensive experience handling Workers' Compensation matters in the education, government and manufacturing sectors. His case experience includes assaults, violent acts, back injuries, fatalities, head injuries, heart attacks, infectious diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, neck injuries, paraplegia/quadriplegia, permanent disability, pulmonary disorders and respiratory conditions.

Mr. Banahan is a member of The Missouri Bar, the Illinois Bar Association, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Missouri Bar Workers’ Compensation Committee and the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers. Mr. Banahan is on the Management Committee for Evans & Dixon.  In addition, he has lectured extensively on Missouri Workers' Compensation and employers’ rights


Harsh Bhasin's Profile

Harsh Bhasin Related Seminars and Products

Project Director

Missouri Division of Workers' Compensation


Harshdeep (Harsh) Bhasin joined the Workers’ Compensation modernization program as a Project Director in October of 2019. Mr. Bhasin has over 13 years of IT experience, of which eight years has been focused on managing multiple large and complex state government projects. Harsh has provided Program/Project Management and Project Delivery services to various State of Missouri agencies, State of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) and Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. He is passionate about the process improvement, culture of technological innovation, and how the government can serve its citizens better. 

Mr. Bhasin is a graduate of Minnesota State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Technology. He then earned his Master’s degree in Software Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Mr. Bhasin holds several certifications, including Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), and Certified Scrum Master (CSM) Project Manager (Agile Practitioner.) Harsh is a big proponent of STEM education and sits on local and national universities’ Science, Engineering, and Technology Department Advisory boards to guide future education curriculum for workforce development. 

Harsh is a proud resident of Jefferson City from the past nine years. When he is not working, he enjoys spending valuable time with his wife and son and reading Financial & Technical books/magazines.

 


Cara Harris's Profile

Cara Harris Related Seminars and Products

Turner, Reid, Duncan, Loomer & Patton, P.C.


B. Korte's Profile

B. Korte Related Seminars and Products

The Korte Law Firm, LLC


 

B. Michael Korte is a Fellow in the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers. He is the author of Volume 29 of the Missouri Practice series of West Publishing Company, Workers’ Compensation Law and Practice, and its addendum, Volume 29A.

He has received the Workers’ Compensation Distinguished Lawyer Award of BAMSL and Kids’ Chance, the Outstanding Service Award for his service as a former president of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, and has been recognized by a nationwide workers’ compensation bar association as one of the top 100 workers’ compensation attorneys in America.

He previously reviewed science fiction for The St. Louis Post Dispatch, and once pitched a no-hitter in Lawyers’ League slow pitch softball.


Kristy Lambert's Profile

Kristy Lambert Related Seminars and Products

Missouri Commission on Human Rights


Kristy A. Lambert is Legal Counsel to the Missouri Commission on Human Rights (MCHR), which enforces the state’s anti-discrimination law in employment, housing, and public accommodations. She also supervises the Kansas City office, including overseeing investigative operations for the region; manages the office’s mediation program; administers its intern program; and conducts education and outreach programs. Ms. Lambert has filled key leadership roles in the planning of MCHR’s Missouri Human Rights Conference, Region VII Fair Housing Assistance Program Training Conference, and in the writing and administration of multiple successful competitive federal grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for fair housing education and outreach. 

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights appointed Ms. Lambert to a four-year term as a member of its Kansas State Advisory Committee; the Commission is an independent, bipartisan federal agency charged with advising the President and Congress on civil rights matters and issuing an annual federal civil rights enforcement report. She also serves on the Project Equality Steering Committee that organizes an annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit in Kansas City. 

Ms. Lambert earned her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Kansas School of Law and graduated with Phi Kappa Phi honors from Oklahoma State University in Business Administration. She is licensed to practice law in Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma and was admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. A native of Oklahoma, Ms. Lambert sings First Soprano with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus. 

 



Stephen McManus's Profile

Stephen McManus Related Seminars and Products

McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips, P.C.


Stephen McManus is the managing shareholder of the firms St. Louis office.  He also serves on the Board of Directors for the firm, and the Senior management team for Business Development and Marketing.  Steve focuses his practice on representing self-insured employers, third-party administrators, and insurance carriers in the defense of a workers’ compensation claim in Missouri and Illinois.


Matthew Murphy's Profile

Matthew Murphy Related Seminars and Products

Vessell Bridges Murphy Law Offices


Patrick Platter's Profile

Patrick Platter Related Seminars and Products

The Law Firm of Neale & Newman LLP


Patrick J. Platter is a partner with the law firm of Neale & Newman, L.L.P. of Springfield, Missouri. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia with undergraduate and law degrees. He specializes in workers’ compensation law, local government law, administrative law, and employment law. He has tried hundreds of workers’ compensation claims before the Division of Workers’ Compensation and appeals before the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission and appellate courts. His appeals in workers’ compensation claims have spanned a wide range of subject in The Workers’ Compensation Law. Mr. Platter is a certified mediator under Rule 17. He is a member of the Mo Bar Fee Dispute Resolution Committee. He is published in the Journal of the Missouri Bar and speaks to many professional and trade organizations in workers’ compensation and employment law. He is recognized in Super Lawyers® in workers’ compensation law and The Best Lawyers of America© in local government law.  



Cancellation Policy

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