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 TreatmentIn Berkebile Towing & Recovery v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Harr), 2021 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 427 (May 10, 2021), the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a decision by the state’s...
PA Tow Truck Operator Was Employee, Not an Independent Contractor PA Tow Truck Operator Was Employee, Not an Independent ContractorIn an unpublished decision, an Arizona appellate court affirmed a determination by the state’s Industrial Commission that found an employee’s workers’ compensation claim was not compensable because the employee’s injuries...
Arizona Employee’s Idiopathic Fall is Not Compensable Arizona Employee’s Idiopathic Fall is Not CompensableThe Supreme Court of Kentucky, construing the state’s agricultural employee exemption [see Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 342.650(5) and 342.0011(18)], reversed a split decision of the state’s Court of Appeals...
KY Supreme Court Construes Agricultural Employee Exemption KY Supreme Court Construes Agricultural Employee ExemptionA New York appellate court held that while the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board was within its discretion when it found an injured worker had violated N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law §...
NY Claimant Should Not Have Been Permanently Barred From Indemnity Benefits NY Claimant Should Not Have Been Permanently Barred From Indemnity BenefitsPanel Says District Court Abused Discretion Last Wednesday, in California Trucking Ass’n v. Bonta, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 12629 (9th Cir., Apr. 28, 2021), a divided panel of the Ninth...
Split 9th Circuit Panel Overturns Injunction Favoring Golden State Truckers Split 9th Circuit Panel Overturns Injunction Favoring Golden State TruckersProviding a casebook-like discussion of the issues related to a workers’ compensation insurer’s intervention in a third-party civil action, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri held...
Federal Court Allows Comp Insurer to Intervene in Injured Worker’s Third-Party Action Federal Court Allows Comp Insurer to Intervene in Injured Worker’s Third-Party ActionAn Illinois appellate court affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a university employee who sustained injuries when she tripped and fell as she stepped over a chain barrier...
Illinois Court Tacitly Says No Recovery Since Injury Was Claimant’s Fault Illinois Court Tacitly Says No Recovery Since Injury Was Claimant’s FaultIn a memorandum opinion, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Office of Judges, which had been affirmed by the Board...
West Virginia High Court Says Unexplained Fall is Compensable West Virginia High Court Says Unexplained Fall is CompensableIn a case that has yo-yo’d between a federal district court (W.D. Tenn.) and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the latter affirmed, in relevant part, a decision by the...
Sixth Circuit Affirms $50K Punitive Damages Award for TN Employer’s Retaliation Against Undocumented Worker Sixth Circuit Affirms $50K Punitive Damages Award for TN Employer’s Retaliation Against Undocumented WorkerIn an unusual, “upside-down” case, in which the parents of a deceased employee argued that their son’s death was not compensable, because it was caused, in part they claimed, by...
In Missouri “Upside-Down” Case, Parents Fail to Prove Son’s Death was Caused by Obesity In Missouri “Upside-Down” Case, Parents Fail to Prove Son’s Death was Caused by ObesityNotwithstanding the doctrine of stare decisis, in this case a clear holding by the North Carolina Supreme Court that a person living in cohabitation with another, to whom he or...
Girlfriend’s Dependency Claim Filed in Face of NC Supreme Court Decision Does Not Warrant Sanctions Girlfriend’s Dependency Claim Filed in Face of NC Supreme Court Decision Does Not Warrant SanctionsAffirming a decision by an Iowa district court that found, under the circumstances of the case, that the employee had provided the employer with sufficient notice of injury pursuant to...
Iowa Court Says “Near Miss” Report Can Serve as Notice of Injury to Employer Iowa Court Says “Near Miss” Report Can Serve as Notice of Injury to Employer
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