A legal professional presiding over cases in the New Mexico Workers’ Compensation Administration, Judge Shanon Riley decides cases involving workers’ compensation claims. Before becoming a judge, Shanon Riley served the public as senior trial attorney with the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
In June 2016, the New Mexico Supreme Court decided a case with major consequences for the state’s employers and employees. The court’s decision strikes down a portion of state law that omits workers on farms and ranches from the New Mexico workers’ compensation system. In essence, those workers, numbering in the tens of thousands, can now secure financial assistance from their employers in the event they hurt themselves on the job.
The judges voted in favor of the decision by a four-to-one majority, with the lone dissenting voice arguing that to overturn the law was to infringe on legislative authority. The decision agrees with that of a lower court.
In addition to the workers’ compensation ruling, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled on the state’s Assisted Suicide Act. The unanimous decision upholds the act as constitutional.
