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 TreatmentWhere a California worker developed a number of conditions during her 26-year career with her employer, including carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), which medical experts attributed 90 percent to industrial factors...
California: Apportionment Inappropriate Where PTD Results From Medical Treatment, Not the Underlying Condition California: Apportionment Inappropriate Where PTD Results From Medical Treatment, Not the Underlying ConditionObserving that California’s “required vehicle” exception to the going and coming rule arises where the employee’s use of his or her own vehicle gives some incidental benefit to the employer,...
California In-Home Caretaker Awarded Benefits for Injuries Sustained in Bicycle Accident California In-Home Caretaker Awarded Benefits for Injuries Sustained in Bicycle AccidentIn a highly anticipated decision, Protz v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Derry Area Sch. Dist.), 2017 Pa. LEXIS 1401 (June 20, 2017), a split Supreme Court of Pennsylvania yesterday held that...
Pennsylvania High Court Strikes Down Use of “Most Recent” AMA Guides Pennsylvania High Court Strikes Down Use of “Most Recent” AMA GuidesWhere an independent medical evaluator concluded that the active range of motion (ROM) measurements she obtained from an injured worker were implausible, indicative of poor effort, and insufficient to verify...
Kentucky IME May Use Clinical Skill and Judgment in Construing AMA Guides Kentucky IME May Use Clinical Skill and Judgment in Construing AMA GuidesIn Matter of Castillo v Brown, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4839 (June 15, 2017), a New York appellate court affirmed the imposition of an $86,000 penalty against a husband and...
Ouch!: Live-in New York Domestic Worker’s Cut Finger Results in $86,000 Penalty To Employing Husband and Wife Ouch!: Live-in New York Domestic Worker’s Cut Finger Results in $86,000 Penalty To Employing Husband and WifeA church volunteer, who contended that she suffered injuries when she tripped and fell over an exposed power cord near or on the altar as she went to help distribute...
New York Church Volunteer’s Personal Injury Action Barred by Exclusive Remedy Rule New York Church Volunteer’s Personal Injury Action Barred by Exclusive Remedy RuleA provision in the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act [W. Va. Code § 23–4–1e(b)] that prohibits an inmate housed at a state work release center from receiving workers’ compensation benefits...
West Virginia Statute Barring Comp Benefits for Many—But Not All—Work Release Inmates is Constitutional West Virginia Statute Barring Comp Benefits for Many—But Not All—Work Release Inmates is ConstitutionalI should have noted this earlier, but anyone still holding his or her breath as to whether Arkansas might pass workers’ compensation opt out legislation during the Legislature’s 2017 session...
Those Holding Their Breath for Arkansas Opt Out Legislation Can Exhale Those Holding Their Breath for Arkansas Opt Out Legislation Can ExhaleWhere a workers’ compensation benefits claimant initially returned to work in a modified-duty position at no loss of wages and subsequently accepted a permanent light-duty position that the employer had...
PA Employer Establishes Worker’s Loss of Earnings Claim by Creating Special Job That Paid Less PA Employer Establishes Worker’s Loss of Earnings Claim by Creating Special Job That Paid LessHas the State Established New Weight-Loss Program for Workers? Emphasizing that within the Colorado workers’ compensation scheme, the employer does not necessarily take the employee as it finds him (or...
Colorado Court Apportions Two-Thirds of Occupational Disease Claim to Overweight Mechanic Colorado Court Apportions Two-Thirds of Occupational Disease Claim to Overweight MechanicIn a split decision, a Mississippi appellate court reversed an order of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission that had granted an employer’s motion to reopen and vacate a prior order...
Death of Mississippi Worker Does Not Negate Settlement Agreement Death of Mississippi Worker Does Not Negate Settlement AgreementAward for Loss of Four Fingers and Thumb Exceeds That of Entire Hand In a divided decision, a New York appellate court affirmed an amended decision of the state’s Workers’...
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts: Not in New York Amputation Case The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts: Not in New York Amputation Case
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