Jettisoning 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 CompensableConflict 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 ProceedsA Kansas roofer, who sustained catastrophic injuries when he was struck by a drunk driver as the roofer walked from a bar to his hotel at 2:20 a.m., could not...
Kansas Worker Gets No Benefits For Early Morning Injuries While Walking to Hotel Kansas Worker Gets No Benefits For Early Morning Injuries While Walking to HotelClaimant Fails to Establish Exception to Going and Coming Rule Yesterday, a New York appellate court affirmed a decision of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that denied the claim of...
Pre-Shift Assault on NYC Train Conductor at Station Not Compensable Pre-Shift Assault on NYC Train Conductor at Station Not CompensableStrong Subrogation Rights Exist Only as to Payments Made under WCA Acknowledging that an employer/carrier’s outlay of workers’ compensation benefits entitles it to a subrogation lien on any recovery the...
PA High Court Says No Subrogation Allowed Regarding Heart and Lung Benefits PA High Court Says No Subrogation Allowed Regarding Heart and Lung BenefitsDeath Benefits Awarded in Spite of Smoking Habit and High Cholesterol A decision by New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board, which concluded that a construction worker’s death was causally-related to his...
NY Construction Worker’s Fatal Heart Attack Found Compensable NY Construction Worker’s Fatal Heart Attack Found Compensable