New Jersey workers’ compensation is based on a no-fault system. Within its framework, employers and their insurance companies utilize various commonly known defenses against employees’ claims for benefits, such as lack of notice, causation, intentional or self-infliction of injuries, or accidents that are unrelated or not within the course of the employment. However, employers and insurance companies often overlook a simple strategy that may be right under their noses—the idiopathic defense. An injury is idiopathic if it could have occurred anywhere, but just so happened to have occurred at work. These injuries are often caused by a person’s inherent medical condition, rather than circumstances directly arising from the workplace.

Generally, in New Jersey, for an accident to be deemed compensable there must be “a causal connection between the employment and the injury.” Coleman v. Cycle Transformer Corp., 105 N.J. 285, 290 (1986); see also N.J.S.A. 34:15-7 (stating that an accident is compensable if it is “arising out of and in the course of employment”). Generally, “[i]f the employment is a contributing cause to the accident, the statutory requirement is met …. The employment need not be the sole or proximate cause of the injury; it is sufficient if it is a necessary factor leading to the accident.” Sanders v. Jarka Corp., 1 N.J. 36 (1948).

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