On January 8, 2001, Governor Taft signed into law a workers’ compensation revision (Am. Sub. H.B. 122), that should bolster an employer’s defense to an employee’s injury when the injury was caused by the employee being intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance not prescribed by a physician.
Before the revision, the employer had to prove that the injury was caused by the employee being intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance. The difficulty was proving that the level of alcohol or drugs in an injured worker impaired the worker to the extent that the impairment caused the injury.
Effective April 10, 2001, the workers’ compensation law will provide a rebuttable presumption that alcohol or a non-prescribed controlled substance is the proximate cause of an injury to an employee who, through a blood, breath or urine test, tests positive at or greater than the statutorily determined level. If that is the case, then the injured worker has no valid
