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 TreatmentIllustrating that it is for the New York Workers’ Compensation Board to weigh the evidence, even when that evidence has been presented to a law judge hearing the case, a...
NY Court Affirms Award for Flight Attendant’s Allergy to Uniforms NY Court Affirms Award for Flight Attendant’s Allergy to UniformsYesterday, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, reversing a decision of the Superior Court, Appellate Division [see 466 N.J. Super. 160, 245 A.3d 1019 (App. Div. 2021)], found that serious injuries...
NJ Librarian’s Parking Lot Injuries When Struck by Snowplow are Compensable NJ Librarian’s Parking Lot Injuries When Struck by Snowplow are CompensableApplying the personal comfort doctrine [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 21.01, et seq.], pursuant to which small, temporary departures from work to administer to personal comforts or convenience are...
PA Court Agrees Injuries Were Compensable under Personal Comfort Doctrine PA Court Agrees Injuries Were Compensable under Personal Comfort DoctrineIn early January, one can reliably count on at least two things: first, that we’ll be bombarded by television commercials hawking diet aids, and second, that someone in the New...
The Case of the Missing Case The Case of the Missing CaseThe Supreme Court of Delaware affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a courthouse employee who sustained injuries in a sinkhole accident near—but not on the courthouse property [Browning...
Delaware High Court Says Sinkhole Injuries Were Not Compensable Delaware High Court Says Sinkhole Injuries Were Not CompensableIn a case involving an utterly bizarre fact pattern, as well as a legal battle stretching out over the bulk of a decade, the Supreme Court of California, in a 5-2 decision, held that a civil action for negligence and misrepresentation filed by two private citizens against...
Opinion Mondays: Is California’s “Posse Law” Passe? Opinion Mondays: Is California’s “Posse Law” Passe?A Pennsylvania WCJ need not consider non-work-related injury limitations that were the result of actions that occurred after the work-related injury as part of a Pennsylvania injured employee’s “residual productive...
Post-Injury Felony Conviction Not a Factor in Determining PA Employee’s Earning Power Post-Injury Felony Conviction Not a Factor in Determining PA Employee’s Earning PowerConstruing N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(6), which defines “injury” to mean “only injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment” [emphasis added], the Court of...
NC Court Construes State’s “Injury by Accident” Requirement NC Court Construes State’s “Injury by Accident” RequirementCopyright 2022. Thomas A. Robinson. All rights reserved. This post may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or format, without the express written consent of...
The Top 10 Bizarre Workers’ Comp Cases for 2021 The Top 10 Bizarre Workers’ Comp Cases for 2021A Florida appellate court has affirmed a decision of a Judge of Compensation Claims (JCC) holding that an injured firefighter was not entitled to reimbursement for additional surgical expenses related...
Florida Court Agrees Firefighter Not Entitled to Reimbursement for Back Surgery Florida Court Agrees Firefighter Not Entitled to Reimbursement for Back SurgeryIn a claim tangental to a highly-publicized 2019 indictment for alleged workers’ compensation fraud, a New York appellate court held that the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board abused its discretion when...
NY Board Abused Discretion in Failing to Allow Carrier’s Review Application NY Board Abused Discretion in Failing to Allow Carrier’s Review ApplicationNoting that a medical opinion need not be expressed with absolute medical certainty as long as it signified a probability of the underlying cause that was supported by a rational...
NY Firefighter Successfully Proved PTSD Claim Based Upon Multiple Gruesome Incidents NY Firefighter Successfully Proved PTSD Claim Based Upon Multiple Gruesome Incidents
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