ABSTRACT
Legal aspects of atopic dermatitis are more likely to involve legal areas of the law as employment, disability, workers’ compensation, tort law, family law, and rarely criminal law. The most significant interface of atopic dermatitis and the law relates to employment and benefits law, such as workers’ compensation, Social Security, veterans’ benefits, and employment discrimination. Systems of workers’ compensation have evolved by which employees can be compensated for injury or illness that has occurred as a consequence of employment, without regard to whether the employee or employer is at fault. Patients may claim disability and be entitled to Social Security benefits or private employment insurance because of extensive atopic dermatitis. There is litigation surrounding non-pharmaceutical products that plaintiffs allege dangerously exacerbate or cause atopic dermatitis. Atopic dermatitis is sometimes a subject of complaint in prisoner pro se petitions seeking a civil rights action under 42 USC section 1983 for deliberate indifference to medical conditions.
