A South Carolina employee alleged that his manager threatened him, accused him of dishonesty, called the police, suspended him, and ultimately fired him. He then sued his employer for negligent...
South Carolina’s Mental-Injury Paradox South Carolina’s Mental-Injury ParadoxMany 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 DecisionsTestimony by the employer’s independent medical examiner, in which the physician opined that the major contributing cause of claimant’s need for treatment for his respiratory condition was his 17-year history...
Florida IME MD Need Not be Board-Certified Pulmonologist to Testify as to Causation of Lung Condition Florida IME MD Need Not be Board-Certified Pulmonologist to Testify as to Causation of Lung ConditionIn the first appellate decision from New York to deal with the intersection of the state’s medical marijuana law with its Workers’ Compensation Law, a state appellate court recently held...
NY Court Hints that Employer Might be Required to Pay for Medical Marijuana NY Court Hints that Employer Might be Required to Pay for Medical MarijuanaIn a divided decision, a Florida appellate court found that a state trial court had erred when it dismissed an action filed by an injured worker against her workers’ compensation...
Injured Worker May Proceed Under Florida’s Consumer Practices Act Against Her Medical Providers Injured Worker May Proceed Under Florida’s Consumer Practices Act Against Her Medical ProvidersStressing that net profits from the operation of a principal’s subchapter S corporation are not the equivalent of wages earned, the Supreme Court of Nebraska affirmed a determination by the...
Nebraska Small Business Owner Entitled to $49 Weekly Benefit in Spite of Profits of $200,000 Per Year Nebraska Small Business Owner Entitled to $49 Weekly Benefit in Spite of Profits of $200,000 Per YearSection 306(a.3) Mandating Use of AMA Guides, 6th Ed., Stands In enacting 77 Pa. Stat. § 511.3, which mandates a physician’s use of the American Medical Association “Guides to the...
PA Court Says “Protz-Fix” is Constitutionally OK PA Court Says “Protz-Fix” is Constitutionally OKYesterday (October 10, 2019), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision by a U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in which the lower court had...
Ninth Circuit Says California’s Insolvency Fund Need Not Reimburse CMS for Medicare’s Conditional Payments Ninth Circuit Says California’s Insolvency Fund Need Not Reimburse CMS for Medicare’s Conditional PaymentsA New York appellate court recently affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that had denied workers’ compensation benefits to a Volunteer Community Ambassador for the Red Cross...
NY Red Cross Volunteer May Not Recover for Injuries During Charitable “Work” NY Red Cross Volunteer May Not Recover for Injuries During Charitable “Work”A New York appellate court recently affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board denying a claim for failure to provide proper notice to the workers’ compensation carrier where...
NY Claim Denied Where Carrier Was Prejudiced by Two-Year Delay in Claim Filing NY Claim Denied Where Carrier Was Prejudiced by Two-Year Delay in Claim FilingIn Louisiana, a positive drug test following a work-related injury may not be offered as evidence that the injured worker’s injuries were the result of intoxication at the time of...
Inadmissible Drug Test May Not Be Used to Show Employee Fraud in Louisiana Inadmissible Drug Test May Not Be Used to Show Employee Fraud in LouisianaThe Supreme Court of South Carolina, reversing a decision by the state’s Court of Appeals, held that a Commissioner should have recused herself from a workers’ compensation dispute where the...
SC Commissioner Should Have Recused Herself from Comp Case SC Commissioner Should Have Recused Herself from Comp CaseAn Illinois trial court’s finding that the entire amount of an arbitrator’s award—stated as a weekly amount times a number of weeks—came due when the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission adopted...
Illinois Court Says Trial Court Erred in Converting PPD Award to Lump Sum Illinois Court Says Trial Court Erred in Converting PPD Award to Lump SumYesterday (October 1, 2019), the Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed an award of death benefits to the surviving dependents of a hospital material-management technician who was found dead in...
Mississippi Employer Fails to Rebut Presumption That Employee’s Unwitnessed Death was Work-Related Mississippi Employer Fails to Rebut Presumption That Employee’s Unwitnessed Death was Work-Related
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