NY Claimant’s Verbal Statement to Assistant Manager Was Sufficient Notice to Employer

Bus Camera Video Sinks NY City Driver’s Back Injury Claim

Substantial evidence supported the New York Workers’ Compensation Board’s determination that a claimant, a bus driver, had not sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of his...

GA Worker’s Subsequent Fall at Home Was an Intervening Cause of Current Condition

A Georgia appellate court found that a state superior court erred when it reversed the State Board of Workers’ Compensation’s determination that an injured worker had recovered from a work-related...

GA Court: Establishing Res Judicata is Difficult as to Medical Issues

Stressing that because a claimant’s course of treatment is fluid and may evolve over time as either the claimant’s condition changes, the recommendations of the authorized treating physician change, or...

Divided NY Appellate Court Finds Claimant's Need of Surgery Insufficient to Show Worsening Condition

In a divided decision, a New York appellate court recently affirmed a Board determination that a claimant, who had earlier been awarded PPD benefits and whose condition apparently worsened so...

Utah Court: Unusual Exertion Required if Claimant Has Preexisting Condition

Court Discusses Important Distinction Between “Legal” and “Medical” Causation Stepping lightly through the difficult mine field of “legal causation,” a Utah appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Labor...

Virginia Case Shows “On-the-Job” Injuries May Not be Compensable

The phrase is used quite often, even by attorneys: “He [or she] was hurt ‘on-the-job.’” The typical implication is that a worker who sustains an “on-the-job” injury deserves workers’ compensation...

S.C. Supreme Court Says Return to Work Insufficient to Rebut Presumption of PTD Where Impairment to Back is Greater Than 50 Percent

Yesterday, in a divided decision, the Supreme Court of South Carolina, overruling an earlier decision of the state’s Court of Appeals, held that evidence of subsequent employment is insufficient by...

California Court Uses Firefighter’s Rule to Bar Negligence Action By UPS Driver

Applying the firefighter’s rule, a specialized assumption of risk doctrine under which, in its most classic form, a person who starts a fire is said to owe no duty of...

Nebraska Court: Injured Employee Failed to Establish Spinal Cord Stimulator Was Reasonable and Necessary

A Nebraska appellate court, in Yost v. Davita, Inc., 23 Neb. App. 482, 2015 Neb. App. LEXIS 204 (Dec. 29, 2015), affirmed a compensation court’s decision that an employer was...

New Mexico: Health Care Provider’s “Certification” of Medical Marijuana is Functional Equivalent of Prescription for Injured Worker

An authorized treating health care provider’s “certification” authorizing the use of medical marijuana under New Mexico’s Compassionate Use Act [N.M. Stat. Ann. § 26–2B–1 et seq.] is the functional equivalent...

New York Case Illustrates That Correlation Between Years of Heavy Work and Back Problems Is Insufficient to Support Compensability

A New York decision reported yesterday, Satalino v. Dan’s Supreme Supermarket, 2012 NY Slip Op 86, 2012 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 63 (Jan. 5, 2012), illustrates the important distinction between...