Photo of Carl Scarborough

Carl’s non-traditional path and service first mentality give him a unique perspective regarding the practice of law. A problem-solving approach, coupled with an understanding and perspective honed by thirty years in the fire service are the cornerstones to his practice.

Laws, in general, do not remotely resemble “plain english” and are therefore very difficult to navigate. While individual laws may be intended to “stand alone” and address a specific concern, the courts have pretty uniformly stated that everything must be taken in context–so if the legislature passes laws that contradict each other then we must

After many years of work at the State legislative  level, and several unsuccessful attempts at a presumptive cancer coverage law, in 2021 the Missouri Fire Service Alliance was able to guide passage of Senate Bill 45, enabling creation of a fire fighter’s cancer benefits pool in the state.

Among other provisions, the law allowed for

*Firehouse Legal blog posts provide information only and are not legal advice. For specific legal advice contact your attorney. No seriously, contact them, they’ll be happy to hear from you.*

In prior blogs I’ve discussed the application of FLSA rules to the fire service, and how to determine whether or not the specific hours worked

Another great year at the MAFPD annual conference.  I enjoyed the discussions during my “Return of the Roaring 20’s” presentation and the turnout was great!

By the way, if you are a firefighter and have not had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Sarah Jahnke speak on firefighter health and well-being, you absolutely must make

*Firehouse Legal blog posts provide information only and are not legal advice. For specific legal advice contact your attorney. No seriously, contact them, they’ll be happy to hear from you.*

Last month we dealt with a threshold question: Does the FLSA apply to the fire service? The answer, of course, was yes. The next questions

Something long-suspected is now systematically and scientifically being proven beyond any reasonable doubt:  Fire Fighters develop cancers at a higher rate than the general population, and the exposures to cancer causing agents come not just in higher numbers, but different types of agents than previously suspected.  The article below links to a study funded by

*Firehouse Legal blog posts provide information only, and are not legal advice. For specific legal advice contact your attorney. No seriously, contact them, they’ll be happy to hear from you.*

So, let’s start with the threshold question: Does the FLSA apply to fire departments? The answer, as most everyone knows at this point, is yes