When Cancer Meets Causation: Wrestling with Medical Mystery in 1951 In workers’ compensation law, few challenges prove more vexing than establishing causation when the medical community itself admits ignorance about...
Throwback Thursday: Boyd v. Young (1951) Throwback Thursday: Boyd v. Young (1951)In an important decision construing the Iowa doctrine that allows gross negligence and fraudulent misrepresentation tort claims against co-employees, the Iowa Supreme Court has revived claims against Tyson Foods executives...
Iowa High Court Says Gross Negligence/Fraud Claims Can Go Forward Against Tyson Executives Iowa High Court Says Gross Negligence/Fraud Claims Can Go Forward Against Tyson ExecutivesA Horseplay Case That Shaped Utah’s Workers’ Compensation Doctrine In Prows v. Industrial Commission of Utah, 610 P.2d 1362 (Utah 1980), the Supreme Court of Utah was presented with a...
Throwback Thursday: Prows v. Industrial Commission of Utah (1980) Throwback Thursday: Prows v. Industrial Commission of Utah (1980)Exclusivity Does Not Shield Corporate Officers/Property Owners From Liability as Landlords In Nelson v. Smith, 2025 N.C. App. LEXIS 306 (May 21, 2025), the North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed...
When the Boss Wears Two Hats When the Boss Wears Two HatsIn a decision that may have slipped beneath the radar of insurers, administrators, and attorneys whose work is not directly impacted by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act [33 U.S.C.S §§ 901, et seq.] (“the Act” or “the Longshore Act”), and yet which, as I argue below...
Opinion Mondays: As to AMA Guides, is There an Alternative to Protz? Opinion Mondays: As to AMA Guides, is There an Alternative to Protz?The first session at tomorrow afternoon's (August 18, 2020) virtual conference, sponsored by Workers' Compensation Institute, has really piqued my interest. Entitled, "THE NEW AMA Guides®" (hereinafter "the Guides"), it begs the question: "When will the 7th Edition of the Guides be released?"....
Opinion Mondays: The AMA is on Another Collision Course With Protz Opinion Mondays: The AMA is on Another Collision Course With ProtzA New York appellate court affirmed a finding of a state WCLJ, affirmed by the New York Workers’ Compensation Board, that a claimant had not made misrepresentations regarding his prior...
No Violation of N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 114-a Where Testimony Inconsistencies Explained by Head Injury No Violation of N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 114-a Where Testimony Inconsistencies Explained by Head InjuryConstruing the N.Y. Workers’ Compensation Guidelines for Determining Impairment, a state appellate court affirmed a decision of the Workers’ Compensation Board that held an injured employee’s foot injury was not...
NY Claimant Entitled to Marked Permanent Disability Award Instead of SLU Award NY Claimant Entitled to Marked Permanent Disability Award Instead of SLU AwardWhere a New York workers’ compensation claimant testified that he had not worked after a specific date and also represented to a carrier’s medical consultant that he had stopped working...
Failure to Disclose Earnings From Home-Based Business is Violation of NY Fraud Statute Failure to Disclose Earnings From Home-Based Business is Violation of NY Fraud StatuteIn a case with a bizarre fact pattern, a Mississippi appellate court affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a worker who sustained injuries in a workplace altercation [Hollis...
Injuries Sustained by MS Worker in Fight Over Country Music Not Compensable Injuries Sustained by MS Worker in Fight Over Country Music Not CompensableThe Court of Appeals of North Carolina, construing the state’s version of the “found dead” rule, affirmed a decision by the state’s Industrial Commission that awarded death benefits to the...
NC Court Affirms Death Benefits Award Under State’s “Found Dead” Presumption NC Court Affirms Death Benefits Award Under State’s “Found Dead” PresumptionWhere an Illinois employee failed to indicate to his employer that his absence from work was due to an alleged work-related injury and he filed his workers’ compensation claim six...
Illinois Employee’s Termination Not Retaliatory Where it Occurred Six Weeks Prior to His Filing Comp Claim Illinois Employee’s Termination Not Retaliatory Where it Occurred Six Weeks Prior to His Filing Comp ClaimWhere a North Carolina truck driver was terminated from employment because the employer determined that the driver had been at fault in causing an accident that resulted in his injuries,...
NC Employer May Not Use Truck Driver’s “Misconduct” in Causing Accident as Excuse for Denying TTD Benefits NC Employer May Not Use Truck Driver’s “Misconduct” in Causing Accident as Excuse for Denying TTD BenefitsA Virginia part-time employee, who was able to work without restrictions for three months, following a work-related injury, and who then was “taken off work” by his cardiologist because of...
Virginia Worker’s Post-Injury Decision to be “Off-Work” Due to COVID-19 Sinks TTD Claim Virginia Worker’s Post-Injury Decision to be “Off-Work” Due to COVID-19 Sinks TTD ClaimIn an unusual case that turned on the “peculiar” wording of New Mexico’s statutory going and coming rule, the Court of Appeals of New Mexico affirmed a decision by a...
New Mexico Court Discusses State’s “Peculiar” Going and Coming Rule New Mexico Court Discusses State’s “Peculiar” Going and Coming RuleA Louisiana appellate court recently affirmed a determination by a WCJ that a pharmacy technician’s injuries resulting from a fall at her computer station after she had suffered a one-time...
Employee Recovers for Idiopathic Fall Under Louisiana’s Positional Risk Doctrine Employee Recovers for Idiopathic Fall Under Louisiana’s Positional Risk Doctrine
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