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  • Galfand Berger Attorney Bradley Smith Wins Award for Essay Submitted to the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers 2015 Competition

    Philadelphia Workers' Compensation Lawyer, Bradley Smith, Writes Winning Essay

    Bradley Smith, an Associate Attorney at Galfand Berger, LLP, was recently awarded the first prize in a prestigious writing competition for the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers.

    Brad’s essay, entitled “Holding a Square Peg and Choosing Between Two Round Holes: the Challenge Workers’ Compensation Law Faces with Uber and the Sharing Economy” details the issues that arise when a worker can neither be classified as a direct employee nor as an independent contractor.  One big idea that the essay tackles in particular is how being neither an independent contractor nor an employee can present major difficulties to people who are injured on the job; if they were considered “employees” they would be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Yet Uber drivers, for example, are neither of those things and therefore should they be hurt in any way while in the scope of their employment, their access to benefits that others typically get is prohibited due to their employment status.  Brad concludes his award-winning piece by stating that it may be time for policymakers to define new categories of employment so as to offer workers’ compensation benefits to this category of workers, who, just as all others, are at risk for workplace injury and, consequently, loss of wages and benefits.

    To read Bradley’s essay in entirety, please click here.

    In order to win the writing competition, participants wrote about any aspect of workers’ compensation law and were encouraged to focus on public policy, leading cases or doctrines and even statutory modifications.

    The College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers was founded to award and honor attorneys who have stood out in the field of Workers’ Compensation law, as Galfand Berger, LLP Attorney Brad Smith has certainly done.

    Brad has had previous comments and essays of his published in the past. In addition, he has provided pro bono representation to individuals and works to help those in need through both his research and legal representation. To view Brad’s full bio, please click here.