Arizona's recent updates to the occupational disease presumption provisions in the workers' compensation statute strengthen the legal presumption that certain cancers diagnosed in qualifying firefighters and fire investigators are work-related.
Under the revised law, once an employee satisfies the statutory eligibility requirements—including passing a pre-employment physical showing no evidence of cancer, completing at least five years of hazardous duty, and meeting applicable medical examination requirements—the disease is presumed to have arisen out of and in the course of employment.
As a result, the burden shifts from the employee to the employer to disprove work-related causation.
The amendments also increase the employer's burden to rebut the presumption by requiring clear and convincing evidence establishing a specific non-occupational cause of the disease, a significantly higher standard than previously applied.
In addition, the statute expands protections by covering a broad list of specified cancers and extending the presumption to former firefighters and fire investigators who are diagnosed with a covered cancer before age 65 and within 15 years of leaving employment.
Although limited exceptions remain, such as for certain respiratory cancers substantially caused by tobacco use, the overall effect of the amendments is to make it easier for qualifying first responders to establish compensability for occupational disease claims while making it more difficult for employers and insurers to overcome the statutory presumption of causation.
Want to know more? Contact Victoria Bettendorf at vbettendorf@pollartmiller.com
