Duskin v. Carlson

An injured worker may sue a third party for damages under the industrial insurance third party action statute. Or the worker may assign the action to the Department of Labor and Industries. The action is automatically assigned if the worker does not answer the Department’s "written demand” to decide whether to sue. In this case, the Department wrote to Gordon Duskin, briefly describing third party actions, and advised him "(A) You may seek recovery yourself; or (B) you may ask Labor and Industries to consider seeking recovery for you.” This permissively worded letter did not tell Duskin that…