The following is an article written by Tennessee Big “I” member (and the very first VU newsletter subscriber) Alan Johnson, CPCU, ARM-P, AIS, AINS about a recent Tennessee Court of Appeals case that ruled that, even if all parties agree that someone is an independent contractor, the GC’s workers compensation insurer can still charge premium for them on the premise that the NCCI policy provides a defense if the independent contractor later sues for employee status. The court ruled that the insurer is entitled to premium for this exposure even though all parties agree that the contractor was not an employee. The court does not address the issue of whether the insurer should be able to charge FULL premium given that the coverage is only for defense and not for statutory benefits. At the end of Alan’s article, we provide more information from our Iowa association related to this issue and how this is more than an isolated problem.

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