Work done for an employer as part of a job.

"Course" focuses on when, where, and under what circumstances the activity happened. "Scope" focuses on whether the activity was tied to the worker's job duties or done to further the employer's business. Put together, the phrase asks a practical question: was the person acting as an employee, not just happening to be at work or on a payroll? That can include obvious tasks, employer-directed travel, loading equipment, and some work-related errands. It usually does not include purely personal detours, horseplay that breaks sharply from the job, or the ordinary trip to and from work unless a special rule applies.

For an injury claim, this phrase often decides whether workers' compensation applies at all. If the injury happened within the course and scope of employment, medical care and wage benefits may be available without proving negligence. If it did not, the claim may be denied. The real disputes tend to show up at the edges: lunch breaks, parking lots, company vehicles, remote work, and travel between job sites on roads like US-1 during the summer rush.

In Maine, the Maine Workers' Compensation Act as recodified in 1992 uses the related standard "arising out of and in the course of employment." That standard is central in deciding compensability. A worker sent to Maine Medical Center in Portland after an on-the-job crash still has to show the injury happened within that work connection.