Driscoll Agrees with the Larson Standard, Then Affirms Without Needing It The Iowa Court of Appeals has affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a city employee who developed...
Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another Day Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another DayDriscoll Agrees with the Larson Standard, Then Affirms Without Needing It The Iowa Court of Appeals has affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a city employee who developed...
Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another Day Issue Commentary: Iowa Looks at Vaccine‑Injury Compensability—and Leaves the Real Question for Another DayIn *Sairafianpour v. Loudoun County Public Schools*, 2026 Va. App. LEXIS 430 (Aug. 11, 2026), the Court of Appeals of Virginia affirmed a Workers’ Compensation Commission decision awarding medical benefits...
VA: One Basket, Two Injuries—and Only One Compensable Accident VA: One Basket, Two Injuries—and Only One Compensable AccidentIn Granite School District v. Young, 2026 UT 29, 2026 Utah LEXIS 113 (Aug. 13, 2026), the Utah Supreme Court affirmed an award of permanent total disability benefits to a...
UT Supreme Court Affirms PTD Award—and Rejects Employer’s Claim to Employee’s Debt-Collection Settlement UT Supreme Court Affirms PTD Award—and Rejects Employer’s Claim to Employee’s Debt-Collection SettlementReversing a decision by deeply divided Court of Appeals (for additional details on that earlier decision, see my post from last year), the Supreme Court of Mississippi, in a split...
Divided MS Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals on Child Support Lien Issue Divided MS Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals on Child Support Lien IssueIn the continuing saga surrounding Pennsylvania’s Protz decision [see Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Derry Area School District), 639 Pa. 645, 161 A.3d 827 (Pa. 2017)(Protz II)], the state’s...
PA Commonwealth Court Says Protz Decision Was Not "Fully Retroactive" PA Commonwealth Court Says Protz Decision Was Not "Fully Retroactive"As many of you know, as co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, I read — or truth be told, skim — many, many appellate decisions each year. Recently, because of...
Opinion Mondays: Anachronistic Longings — the Co-Worker Lunch Opinion Mondays: Anachronistic Longings — the Co-Worker LunchNoting that dismissal with prejudice is the most severe sanction available to the court in a civil case, and thus, it should not be readily granted, a North Carolina appellate...
NC Commission Erred in Dismissing Claim With Prejudice NC Commission Erred in Dismissing Claim With PrejudiceIn a decision that is likely to raise some eyebrows, a divided Supreme Court of Virginia, affirming an earlier decision by a lower appellate court, held that an injured employee’s...
Virginia High Court Says Permanent Impairment Computed Before, Not After, Hip Replacement Surgery Virginia High Court Says Permanent Impairment Computed Before, Not After, Hip Replacement SurgeryIllustrating what can happen when a workers' compensation carrier fails to notify its counsel of the carrier's receipt of important papers concerning a claim, a New York appellate court affirmed...
NY Carrier Fails to Notify its Attorney of Claimant’s Application for Board Review and Loses Appeal NY Carrier Fails to Notify its Attorney of Claimant’s Application for Board Review and Loses AppealIn a document published in February, the Congressional Research Service observed: “Workers’ compensation has been called a grand bargain between employers and workers … [under which] workers receive guaranteed, no-fault...
Opinion Mondays: While We’re Adjusting Our COVID-19 Masks, Is the Grand Bargain Being Altered? Opinion Mondays: While We’re Adjusting Our COVID-19 Masks, Is the Grand Bargain Being Altered?In a case in which the original work-related injury occurred two decades before the appellate decision, a Florida appellate court held that a JCC erred in focusing on a claimant's...
Florida Employee Awarded PTD Benefits 17 Years After Retirement Florida Employee Awarded PTD Benefits 17 Years After RetirementA Virginia appellate court recently affirmed a decision by the state's Workers' Compensation Commission that denied temporary partial disability benefits to an injured employee under Va. Code Ann. § 65.2-502,...
Injured VA Employee May Not Merely Accept Lowest-Paying Post-Injury Job and Recover Difference in Earnings Injured VA Employee May Not Merely Accept Lowest-Paying Post-Injury Job and Recover Difference in EarningsA New York appellate court affirmed a finding by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that a claimant/employee did not sustain injuries arising out of and in the course of his...
New York's "Gray Area" Rule Does Not Aid Claimant Struck by Car Near Workplace New York's "Gray Area" Rule Does Not Aid Claimant Struck by Car Near WorkplaceIn recent weeks, as multiple states have established presumptions of compensability favoring some workers who contract the coronavirus/COVID-19, many within the workers’ compensation community have pondered just how these presumptions...
Opinion Mondays: Old Influenza Case From Hawaii Shows How COVID-19 Presumptions Might Work Opinion Mondays: Old Influenza Case From Hawaii Shows How COVID-19 Presumptions Might WorkIn a case that provides guidance for employers and carriers who seek to rebut the special presumption of compensability provided to firefighters and certain other “covered officers” (including corrections officers)...
Florida Court Says Cardiac Presumption Favoring Corrections Officer Was Rebutted Florida Court Says Cardiac Presumption Favoring Corrections Officer Was Rebutted
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