Do You Know the Rule? Conn. First Responder ‘Going and Coming Rule’

Hartford, CT (WorkersCompensation.com) -- In general, the Connecticut "going and coming rule" maintains that a personal injury will not be deemed to arise out of employment for workers' compensation purposes if the injury is sustained:

(1) At the employee's "place of abode"; and
(2) While the employee is engaged in a preliminary act or acts in preparation for work unless the act or acts are undertaken at the express direction or request of the employer.

Back in October, a new law (HB6721) went into effect to expand exceptions to the "going and coming" rule for first responders.

So, what's new? The following information breaks it down.

'Portal-to-Portal'

The new Connecticut law extends "portal-to-portal" workers' compensation coverage to 9-1-1 emergency dispatchers. With portal-to-portal coverage, an employee's travel from home to the workplace or from the workplace to home is considered to be in the course of the employee's employment.

This means that an employee injured while traveling between home and work is eligible to receive workers' compensation benefits for the injury.

Connecticut had previously extended portal-to-portal coverage in various degrees to police officers, firefighters, and Department of Corrections employees as follows:

Workers Comp 101: In McMorris v. City of New Haven Police Department, 115 A.3d 491 (Conn. App. Ct. 2015), a police officer's injuries were covered under the "portal-to-portal" rule. Although the officer was driving his children to day care at the time he was injured, he was where he would have been expected to be in the course of his employment as a police officer because he had not yet gotten to the point where he would have altered his route to get to the day care facility rather than go to the police station. His job duties included driving to work, so the act of taking the children to day care didn't remove him from the course and scope of his employment.

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