In Spade v. Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Inc., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49799 (E.D. Ky. Mar. 11, 2026), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary...
Federal Court (E.D. Ky.) Rejects Workers’ Comp Retaliation Claim Despite Sympathetic Facts Federal Court (E.D. Ky.) Rejects Workers’ Comp Retaliation Claim Despite Sympathetic FactsSmall contractors sometimes believe that keeping their payroll lean — two employees instead of three — will keep them outside the reach of the workers’ compensation statute. But the Virginia...
Virginia Court Counts Subcontractor Workers in Coverage Threshold Case Virginia Court Counts Subcontractor Workers in Coverage Threshold CaseIn Garcia v. Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 6549 (2d Cir. Mar. 5, 2026), the Second Circuit denied a petition for review filed by a...
Second Circuit Bars Medical Marijuana Reimbursement Under the Longshore Act Second Circuit Bars Medical Marijuana Reimbursement Under the Longshore ActEvery dollar spent on workers’ compensation falls into one of two broad categories: benefits paid to injured workers—medical care and wage replacement—and the costs of delivering those benefits. The second...
New York’s Hidden Cost Problem: WCRI Examines the Price of Delivering Benefits New York’s Hidden Cost Problem: WCRI Examines the Price of Delivering BenefitsCharacterizing the language of a workers’ compensation settlement agreement that included a provision for a Medicare set-aside annuity (MSA) as “sloppy” and “imprecise” and quoting novelist Vladimir Nabokov’s advice to...
What A Difference a Word Makes: Illinois Court Remands Case Because Settlement Agreement Ambiguous What A Difference a Word Makes: Illinois Court Remands Case Because Settlement Agreement AmbiguousIt is one thing to modify an injured employee’s vehicle so as to accommodate his wheelchair or scooter. It is quite another to provide the employee with necessary transportation assistance...
Virginia Court Requires Insurer to Provide Transportation to Doctor’s Office In Spite of Fact That It Already Paid to Modify Vehicle Virginia Court Requires Insurer to Provide Transportation to Doctor’s Office In Spite of Fact That It Already Paid to Modify VehicleWhen is the opinion of a board-certified (occupational medicine) physician, with years of experience and special training in the utilization of the AMA Guides, and who has performed numerous Impairment...
PA Court Refuses to Consider Independent, Board-Certified MD’s Opinion Because of Her Practice “Mix” PA Court Refuses to Consider Independent, Board-Certified MD’s Opinion Because of Her Practice “Mix”Reiterating the Minnesota rule that so-called “mental-mental” injuries–mental injuries associated with mental stimulus, as opposed to physical stimulus–are not compensable and that it is for the state’s legislature, and not...
Minnesota High Court Says PTSD is No “Brain Injury” Minnesota High Court Says PTSD is No “Brain Injury”Within the workers’ compensation arena, it is axiomatic that the medical consequences and sequelae that flow from the primary injury are themselves compensable. [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 10.01]....
Benign Neglect: Can Failure to Follow Doctor’s Advice Be Fatal to Injured Worker’s Claim? Benign Neglect: Can Failure to Follow Doctor’s Advice Be Fatal to Injured Worker’s Claim?Each year I read–or at least scan–more than 1,500 workers’ compensation cases that make the appellate reporter system around the nation. As large as that number sounds, it’s really fewer...
Compromise and Settlement: May An Employer Include a Penalty Clause to Ward Off Further Vexatious Claims? Compromise and Settlement: May An Employer Include a Penalty Clause to Ward Off Further Vexatious Claims?The Supreme Court of Ohio, reversing an earlier decision by an intermediate appellate court, recently affirmed the state Industrial Commission’s denial of a loss of vision and hearing claim under...
Ohio: Comatose Injured Worker’s Additional Claim for Loss of Vision and Hearing Fails Ohio: Comatose Injured Worker’s Additional Claim for Loss of Vision and Hearing FailsLast week, I was very pleased to be a part of an Orlando, Florida risk management conference sponsored by Artex Risk Solutions. Along with two good friends and colleagues, Rebecca...
Bariatric Surgery: Is it a Workers’ Compensation Medical Benefit? Bariatric Surgery: Is it a Workers’ Compensation Medical Benefit?In Potier v. Acadian Ambulance Serv., Inc., 2014 La. App. LEXIS 347 (February 12, 2014), a Louisiana appellate court recently affirmed a decision by a state workers’ compensation judge that...
Louisiana: Mileage Payment Does Not Bring EMT’s Travel Within the Employment; Going and Coming Rule Bars Claim Louisiana: Mileage Payment Does Not Bring EMT’s Travel Within the Employment; Going and Coming Rule Bars ClaimN.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 11 bars third-party lawsuits for contribution and indemnification against an injured employee’s employer unless either (a) the employee suffered a “grave injury,” limited to death...
NY: Employer Does Not Lose Exclusivity Defense in Contribution/Indemnification Case Because Employee was Undocumented Alien NY: Employer Does Not Lose Exclusivity Defense in Contribution/Indemnification Case Because Employee was Undocumented AlienIndicating that in New York there were two requisites for reopening a claim based on newly acquired evidence: (a) the application to reopen “must be made within a reasonable time...
NY Court: No Reopening Allowed in Established Claim re: Murdered Employee NY Court: No Reopening Allowed in Established Claim re: Murdered EmployeeIn a decision showing just how strongly the state’s workers’ compensation system separates the “arising out of” the employment component of the compensation formula from the “course of employment” component,...
Idaho Shoe Lace Causes Compensable Herniated Disc Idaho Shoe Lace Causes Compensable Herniated Disc
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