Many disputes over physician choice in workers’ compensation arise when an injured worker seeks treatment from a doctor of his or her own choosing. Hayes v. Christian Retirement Homes, Inc.,...
Iowa Supreme Court: Employer Not Bound by Opinion of Its Own Treating Physician Iowa Supreme Court: Employer Not Bound by Opinion of Its Own Treating PhysicianCourt Applies Massachusetts Law to Maine Injury, Rejects Immunity Defense in Multi-State Staffing Arrangement A New Hampshire contractor that likely would have enjoyed workers’ compensation immunity under Maine law lost...
Maine Supreme Court: Massachusetts Law Strips Staffing Client of Workers’ Compensation Immunity Maine Supreme Court: Massachusetts Law Strips Staffing Client of Workers’ Compensation ImmunityNew York’s Court of Appeals recently affirmed an Appellate Division order blocking defendants in a personal injury action from using a Workers’ Compensation Board causation determination as collateral estoppel, holding...
NY High Court Holds JIWA Bars Collateral Estoppel Effect of Pre-Enactment Workers’ Comp Decisions NY High Court Holds JIWA Bars Collateral Estoppel Effect of Pre-Enactment Workers’ Comp DecisionsIn a case involving a Nebraska truck driver-farm laborer whose treatment for metastatic cancer was allegedly postponed by complications associated with a compensable hip injury and its resulting treatment, the...
Nebraska Supreme Court Affirms Denial of Death Benefits Where Work Injury Delayed Cancer Treatment Nebraska Supreme Court Affirms Denial of Death Benefits Where Work Injury Delayed Cancer TreatmentA Florida appellate court affirmed the denial of death benefits to a mother whose 16-year-old son was killed in a tragic drowning accident on the first day of his part-time...
No Recovery for FL Mother Whose 16-Year-Old Son Died on First Day of Work No Recovery for FL Mother Whose 16-Year-Old Son Died on First Day of WorkObserving that in Kansas, like a number of other states, an employer may be liable in tort as a “third-party tortfeasor” if the employer has obligations to the employee independent...
Kansas Court Says Dual Capacity Doctrine Not Applicable Where Employer Manufactured Machine Causing Employee’s Injury Kansas Court Says Dual Capacity Doctrine Not Applicable Where Employer Manufactured Machine Causing Employee’s InjuryThe Delaware Supreme Court affirmed a decision of the Superior Court that in turn had affirmed a decision by the state’s Industrial Accident Board (“IAB”) granting an employer’s petition for...
Delaware Employer Need Not Pay for Claimant’s Opioids More than 9 Years After Accident Delaware Employer Need Not Pay for Claimant’s Opioids More than 9 Years After AccidentA New York appellate court affirmed a determination by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that had rescinded that part of a WCLJ’s decision finding that the claimant violated N.Y. Workers’...
NY Court: Not Every Omission of Prior Injury Constitutes Misrepresentation under § 114-a NY Court: Not Every Omission of Prior Injury Constitutes Misrepresentation under § 114-aFinding that a furnace worker had failed to establish the necessary third prong in the definition of occupational diseases—that his employment created a risk of contracting the disease (here, COVID-19)...
Ohio Court Affirms Finding that Furnace Worker’s COVID-19 Was Not Compensable Ohio Court Affirms Finding that Furnace Worker’s COVID-19 Was Not CompensableIn a decision that may have attorneys in other states scurrying back to their respective statutes to check their states’ definitions of “physician,” the Supreme Court of Kentucky held that...
KY Supreme Court: Noted Medical Authority’s AMA Guides Report Inadmissible KY Supreme Court: Noted Medical Authority’s AMA Guides Report InadmissibleQuoting Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, an Ohio appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Industrial Commission that had refused to consider various fringe benefits in the form of health...
Ohio Court Says Healthcare Benefits and Pension Contributions Not to be Used in Computing AWW Ohio Court Says Healthcare Benefits and Pension Contributions Not to be Used in Computing AWWA New York appellate court held that where a physician testified that a claimant developed neck and shoulder pain “due to repetitive stress and forceful use of the upper extremities...
Indefinite Medical Testimony Sinks NY Claimant’s Occupational Disease Claim Indefinite Medical Testimony Sinks NY Claimant’s Occupational Disease ClaimA New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that a freelance per diem technician was not fired in retaliation for his filing of a...
Injured NY Freelance Technician Loses in Bid to Show Termination of Employment was Retaliatory Injured NY Freelance Technician Loses in Bid to Show Termination of Employment was RetaliatoryA New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that found an injured worker’s failure to disclose work-related injuries he sustained in 1998 and 2002,...
Failure to Disclose Prior Work-Related Injuries Proves Fatal for NY Worker’s Claim for Continued Benefits Failure to Disclose Prior Work-Related Injuries Proves Fatal for NY Worker’s Claim for Continued BenefitsIn a meticulous and well-reasoned opinion weighing and discussing multiple issues, the Supreme Court of Idaho held that the state’s Industrial Commission committed error when it ruled that the claimant’s...
120-Pound Weight Gain Might (or Might Not) Sink Idaho Worker’s Aggravation Claim 120-Pound Weight Gain Might (or Might Not) Sink Idaho Worker’s Aggravation ClaimReiterating that aTexas workers’ compensation carrier is entitled to the “first money” an injured worker recovered in a third-party tort action—here, settlement of a medical malpractice claim—and stressing further that...
Texas Court Stresses Comp Carrier is Entitled to Full “First Money” in Worker’s Third-Party Tort Settlement Texas Court Stresses Comp Carrier is Entitled to Full “First Money” in Worker’s Third-Party Tort Settlement
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