The Superior Court of Delaware (New Castle) held that the issue of whether an employee’s fatal COVID-19 infection was an injury or occupational disease must be determined by the state’s...
Delaware Board Must Decide if COVID-Related Claim is Compensable Delaware Board Must Decide if COVID-Related Claim is CompensableIn a case with a rather bizarre fact pattern, an Oregon appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that awarded benefits to a painter who sustained...
Oregon Employee Recovers Benefits Following Explosion of Energy Drink Oregon Employee Recovers Benefits Following Explosion of Energy DrinkAcknowledging the relative informality within the South Dakota workers’ compensation laws as well as the public policy that the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act and its rules should be construed liberally...
SD Worker’s Letter Asking for “Review of Benefits” Was Inadequate to Toll Limitations Statute SD Worker’s Letter Asking for “Review of Benefits” Was Inadequate to Toll Limitations StatuteIn a carefully crafted decision dealing with a chronic problem both within and without the workers’ compensation world—long-term opioid use—the Supreme Court of Minnesota held an injured workers treatment with...
MN High Court Says Injured Worker Failed to Establish Exception Allowing Long-Term Opioid Use MN High Court Says Injured Worker Failed to Establish Exception Allowing Long-Term Opioid UseConstruing 19 Del. C. § 2353(b), which bars an employee’s right to compensation for an injury if the injury results, inter alia, from “the employee’s deliberate and reckless indifference to...
Delaware Worker’s Running in Workplace Bars Claim for Injuries Delaware Worker’s Running in Workplace Bars Claim for InjuriesFinding that a physician-patient relationship did not exist between a doctor hired by the workers’ compensation carrier to perform an independent medical examination of the claimant, the Supreme Court of...
Utah IME Physician May Not Be Sued by Workers’ Comp Claimant Utah IME Physician May Not Be Sued by Workers’ Comp ClaimantIn a decision not designated for publication, a Virginia appellate court affirmed a finding of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission that an injured employee’s work-related accident had caused only a...
Half of Virginia Claimant’s PPD Apportioned to Pre-Existing Condition Half of Virginia Claimant’s PPD Apportioned to Pre-Existing ConditionConstruing Virginia’s intentional violation of a known safety rule statute [Va. Code § 65.2-306(A)], a state appellate court affirmed an award of workers’ compensation benefits to an employee who sustained...
Virginia Claimant Did Not Violate Known Safety Rule in Connection with Injury Virginia Claimant Did Not Violate Known Safety Rule in Connection with InjuryReiterating New York’s special “gray area” rule, pursuant to which injuries sustained in public areas near the employment—but not on the employer’s premises—are nevertheless compensable where the risks of street...
NY Court Agrees Claimant’s Injuries Occurred Within “Gray Area” of Employment NY Court Agrees Claimant’s Injuries Occurred Within “Gray Area” of EmploymentA New York appellate court affirmed a determination by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that the surviving spouse of a deceased worker failed to establish—by competent medical evidence—that his wife’s...
Surviving Spouse Fails to Show Causal Connection Between NY Injury and Decedent’s Subsequent Death Surviving Spouse Fails to Show Causal Connection Between NY Injury and Decedent’s Subsequent DeathThe Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court held a WCJ appropriately relied upon the medical opinion of the employer’s examining physician in which the doctor opined that the workers’ compensation claimant had made...
PA Claimant’s Benefits Terminated: 18 Months of Home Remedies Did Not Constitute Medical Treatment PA Claimant’s Benefits Terminated: 18 Months of Home Remedies Did Not Constitute Medical TreatmentA New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that denied a claim for consequential Lyme disease in spite of an opinion offered by an...
NY Worker Fails to Establish Claim for Lyme Disease NY Worker Fails to Establish Claim for Lyme Disease