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 TreatmentIf It Weren’t For Bad Luck, She’d Have No Luck at All An Oklahoma workers’ compensation claimant is entitled to additional benefits following a bizarre incident in which she sustained...
Oklahoma Claimant Awarded Additional Benefits After Freak Accident at Medical Facility Oklahoma Claimant Awarded Additional Benefits After Freak Accident at Medical FacilityWhile a workers’ compensation insurer generally enjoys the same sort of immunity from tort liability afforded the employer [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 100.01], there are limits to that...
NC Worker’s Tort Claim Against Insurer for Malicious Prosecution May Move Forward NC Worker’s Tort Claim Against Insurer for Malicious Prosecution May Move ForwardMisclassification of Workers is not Recognized as independent Tort A Maryland cab driver, who sustained injuries in a work-related auto accident, may not maintain a civil action against the cab...
Maryland Cab Driver’s “Misclassification” Action Appropriately Dismissed Maryland Cab Driver’s “Misclassification” Action Appropriately DismissedJettisoning the Bath Water—Does the Baby Remain? As someone who has, for the past 32 years, earned the bulk of his living reading—I’ll admit, often only skimming—some 2,500 appellate decisions...
Recent Kansas AMA Guides Decision: Would the Court Prefer a Fault-Based System? Recent Kansas AMA Guides Decision: Would the Court Prefer a Fault-Based System?Decision Reinstates 4th Edition for Workers’ Comp Disputes In a decision that quotes, among other authority, Linda Loman, wife of Willy Loman, of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the...
Kansas Court Strikes Down Use of AMA Guides 6th Ed. Kansas Court Strikes Down Use of AMA Guides 6th Ed.In a case with a bizarre fact pattern, an Alabama appellate court affirmed an award of workers’ compensation death benefits to the surviving spouse of an accountant who was stalked...
Alabama Accountant’s Fatal Shooting by Disgruntled Former Client Found Compensable Alabama Accountant’s Fatal Shooting by Disgruntled Former Client Found CompensableThere are some who point out that LeBron is getting ready to pay the highest taxes in his life (with a $154 million contract, he can afford it), that he...
The Real Reason LeBron is Moving to the Lakers! The Real Reason LeBron is Moving to the Lakers!Conflict with PA’s Protz Decision is Only on the Surface The sections of Oklahoma’s Administrative Workers’ Compensation Act (AWCA) that require use of the “current edition” of the AMA’s Guides...
Oklahoma High Court OKs Use of “Current Edition” of AMA Guides Oklahoma High Court OKs Use of “Current Edition” of AMA GuidesNo Provision for Court-Ordered Fees on Appeal The Court of Appeals of Kansas recently reiterated that because of what amounts to a “Catch-22” in state law and appellate rules, an...
Kansas Claimants’ Attorneys Face “Catch-22” in Appellate Work Kansas Claimants’ Attorneys Face “Catch-22” in Appellate WorkIn a case of first impression within the state, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, in a 5-2 decision, Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers Paper Co., LLC, 2018 ME 77, 187...
Maine Employer Need Not Pay for Injured Worker’s Medical Marijuana Maine Employer Need Not Pay for Injured Worker’s Medical MarijuanaA California appellate court found a state trial court committed error when it granted summary judgment to an employer in an employment discrimination case filed by a former employee based...
California: Use of Preprinted C & R Form Does Not Waive Claims Outside Workers’ Comp Context California: Use of Preprinted C & R Form Does Not Waive Claims Outside Workers’ Comp ContextWhere a worker’s compensation insurance policy contained a clause in which the carrier waived its right to recover from any third party sued by the injured employee, that clause also...
Texas Insurer Barred from Going After Third-Party Settlement Proceeds Texas Insurer Barred from Going After Third-Party Settlement Proceeds
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