General Course Descriptions for Terms: workers compensation
940 - Workers Compensation Law
This experiential course is taught by experienced attorneys and is designed to introduce second- and third-year law students to worker’s compensation law and procedure. Hayley Clark of Aplin & Ringsmuth, LLC, and Attorney Heide Mallon (Previous Worker's Compensation Administrative Law Judge and current LIRC Staff Attorney) are co-instructors of the course. Students are assigned to advocate fictitious Wisconsin worker’s compensation claims from the pleading stage to hearing. Roughly half of the class sessions involve a traditional lecture/discussion format, although legal, procedural, and medical topics are discussed with the fictitious claims in mind. In other class sessions, guest experts—including an orthopedic surgeon, a psychologist, and a vocational expert—pose as witnesses in the fictitious claims and are “examined” and “cross-examined” by experienced attorneys as if they were testifying at hearing. One class session involves the direct and cross-examination of a claimant from one of the fictitious claims. Students learn about medical, psychological, and vocational science and acquire litigation skills in these class sessions. Worker's Compensation Practitioners will be guest lecturers on effective advocacy at hearing and on mediations and settlement. At the conclusion of the course, students are required to write a brief advocating their clients’ positions in the fictitious cases for hearing, and then litigate their clients’ claims in a two-hour mock worker’s compensation hearing, conducted during the final exam period before an experienced administrative law judge, with discussion of helpful pointers to follow. Course materials include the Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Handbook by John D. Neal and Joseph P. Danas, and additional materials provided to students by the instructors electronically.