Delaware Nurse on COVID-19 Floor Loses Her Comp Claim

MS Claimant Establishes Claim in Spite of Cautious Medical Testimony

A Mississippi appellate court affirmed an ALJ’s decision, affirmed by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission, that an employee’s stress fracture in her right foot was work-related, entitling the employee to...

Opinion Mondays: 30 Days into California's COVID-19 Executive Order, Questions Abound

As the nation moves, with fits and starts, toward some sort of recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, many within the workers’ compensation system are still trying to digest significant changes...

Injured VA Employee May Not Merely Accept Lowest-Paying Post-Injury Job and Recover Difference in Earnings

A Virginia appellate court recently affirmed a decision by the state's Workers' Compensation Commission that denied temporary partial disability benefits to an injured employee under Va. Code Ann. § 65.2-502,...

Opinion Mondays: Old Influenza Case From Hawaii Shows How COVID-19 Presumptions Might Work

In recent weeks, as multiple states have established presumptions of compensability favoring some workers who contract the coronavirus/COVID-19, many within the workers’ compensation community have pondered just how these presumptions...

Washington Landscaper Denied Benefits After "Blowing" Twice the Legal Limit

In a decision not designated for publication, an appellate court from the state of Washington affirmed a jury’s determination that an injured worker was intoxicated to such an extent that...

PA Commonwealth Court Reverses ALJ's Decision Awarding Unreasonable Contest Fees

In a decision that discusses the complex give and take between an injured Pennsylvania employee and an employer who contends that the employee no longer is entitled to a payment...

NY Employer/Carrier May Preclude Medical Reports Without Enforcing Subpoenas

Yesterday, a New York appellate court held that the Board's decision to preclude medical reports of two of claimant's treating physicians was appropriate in spite of the fact that the...

"First Do No Harm" – Missouri Employee's Injuries At Doctor's Office Not Compensable

The Supreme Court of Missouri, construing the state’s special causation rules for workers’ compensation claims, affirmed a decision by the state’s Labor and Industrial Relations Commission that denied an employee’s...

Arkansas Worker Fails to Show Injury Was Not “Substantially Occasioned” by Marijuana Use

Stressing that an Arkansas appellate court must defer to the state Commission’s findings of credibility and its resolution of conflicting evidence, even though it is the administrative law judge —...

Divided Rhode Island Supreme Court Nixes Conclusive Cancer Presumptions for Firefighters

R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-19.1-1 (1956) does not create a conclusive presumption that cancer in firefighters arises out of and in the course of the employment, held a divided Supreme...

FL Court Laments “Herculean Task” for Claimants in Toxic Exposure Claims

Acknowledging what it called “the Herculean task created by the heightened burden of proof for toxic exposure claims,” yet noting as well that it was for the Florida Legislature, not...