Last Tuesday, Governor Mike Parson appointed State Representative Robert Cornejo to be chairman of the Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Board. Cornejo, an attorney and Republican state representative from St. Peters, Missouri, will replace outgoing Chairman John Larsen.

The commission, which makes all decisions based on majority vote, now comprises three members: Chairman Cornejo serves as the public representative, Commissioner Reid Forrester as the employer representative, and Commissioner Curtis Chick as the employee representative. The commission is the first level of appellate review of awards given by administrative law judges in workers’ compensation cases, and is allowed to review all evidence and overturn the decisions of administrative law judges on questions of law and fact. It can furthermore overturn such decisions on issues of credibility without even hearing live testimony from witnesses.

For the last few years, employees have maintained an advantage, with Commissioner Chick and Chairman Larsen often siding with the employee. We expect that trend to change a bit with a chairman who most expect to be more employer-friendly than former Chairman Larsen.

To learn more about how the appointing of State Representative Robert Cornejo to Chairman might affect your business, please contact:

• John M. Allen
• Jennifer Y. Weller
• Or another member of Goldberg Segalla’s Workers’ Compensation Practice Group.