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 TreatmentUnder Rhode Island’s so-called Branco exception to the going and coming rule, an employee and/or the employee’s dependents may recover workers’ compensation benefits where the employee’s injury or death results...
RI Supreme Court Broadens “Parking Lot” Rule to Include Leased Properties RI Supreme Court Broadens “Parking Lot” Rule to Include Leased PropertiesN.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-85(a), which empowers the North Carolina Industrial Commission to reconsider the evidence before the deputy commissioner, and to amend the deputy commissioner’s award “if good ground...
NC Court Reiterates that Full Commission, Not the Deputy Commissioner, is the Ultimate Factfinder NC Court Reiterates that Full Commission, Not the Deputy Commissioner, is the Ultimate FactfinderThe Supreme Court of Idaho, construing Idaho Code § 72-438(14)(b), which generally provides firefighters with a rebuttable presumption that certain listed cancers have a causal connection with the employment, held...
To Rebut Idaho’s Cancer Presumption Favoring Firefighters, Employer Must Offer Evidence that Cancer was Not Caused by Employment To Rebut Idaho’s Cancer Presumption Favoring Firefighters, Employer Must Offer Evidence that Cancer was Not Caused by EmploymentWhere a police officer had sustained three prior work-related injuries and sought to receive compensation for an alleged injury to his neck, the burden was on the employee to show...
Lay Testimony Insufficient to Establish Causation for MS Claimant Lay Testimony Insufficient to Establish Causation for MS ClaimantA Florida appellate court held that a judge of compensation claims committed error when he determined that a construction worker who sustained severe injuries in a vehicular accident as he...
Florida Court Stresses There is No “Field Employee” Exception to Statutory Going and Coming Rule Florida Court Stresses There is No “Field Employee” Exception to Statutory Going and Coming RuleA New York appellate court affirmed the state Board’s rescission of a WCLJ’s reduced earnings award where it found that while the workers’ compensation claimant did have medical restrictions following...
NY Court Says Existence of Medical Restrictions Are Alone Insufficient to Establish Reduced Earnings Claim NY Court Says Existence of Medical Restrictions Are Alone Insufficient to Establish Reduced Earnings ClaimIn an important case that may define—at least in California—an employer’s responsibility for injuries sustained when an employee’s family member contracts COVID-19 as a result of an infection that is...
California High Court May Take Another Look at Employer’s Liability for COVID-19 Contracted by Employee’s Family Member California High Court May Take Another Look at Employer’s Liability for COVID-19 Contracted by Employee’s Family MemberA New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that apportioned liability for the benefits due under an injured employee’s workers’ compensation claim between the...
NY Court Affirms Apportionment of Liability Between Special and General Employers NY Court Affirms Apportionment of Liability Between Special and General EmployersReversing a portion of a decision by the New York Workers’ Compensation Board, a state appellate court stressed that the appropriate date of a finding of no labor market attachment...
NY Court Disapproves of Board’s Retroactive Disqualification for Lack of Labor Market Attachment NY Court Disapproves of Board’s Retroactive Disqualification for Lack of Labor Market AttachmentThe Supreme Court of Rhode Island, with two justices dissenting, reversed a decision of a county Superior Court judge that had granted summary judgment to a former employee who contended...
Divided R.I. High Court Says Workers’ Comp Release Was Sufficiently Broad to Bar Discrimination Claim Against Employer Divided R.I. High Court Says Workers’ Comp Release Was Sufficiently Broad to Bar Discrimination Claim Against EmployerA California appellate court recently affirmed a state trial court’s decision granting summary judgment in favor of a security guard services company that had been sued following a motor vehicle...
Going and Coming Rule Bars Tort Action Filed Against CA Employer Going and Coming Rule Bars Tort Action Filed Against CA EmployerThe Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed a trial court’s decision to the extent that it ruled it had jurisdiction to hear an employer’s claim for damages and penalties against its...
Louisiana Trial Court Errs in Awarding Attorney’s Fees Exceeding $2,000 Per Hour Louisiana Trial Court Errs in Awarding Attorney’s Fees Exceeding $2,000 Per Hour
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