If the black-letter law provides for compensation for people "whether lawfully or unlawfully employed," it means what it says. Changing that wording is a matter for the legislature, not the courts. For Harrell to decide on his own, in the face of a clearly-worded statute, that the language thereof applies only to minors is nothing more or less than judicial activism. And we're against that, right?
The solution to a dumbass law is to repeal or amend it, not to appeal to judges to ignore it. It's hardly consistent to rail against "activist judges" and then berate the Maryland judges for being insufficiently activist in overturning or reinterpreting the law as passed by elected representatives of the people.
Am I railing?
The people do need to look at what laws are being passed by their representatives in government.