In Change of Condition Proceeding, Board May Not Re-Litigate Medical Causation Issue

Indefinite Medical Testimony Sinks NY Claimant’s Occupational Disease Claim

A New York appellate court held that where a physician testified that a claimant developed neck and shoulder pain “due to repetitive stress and forceful use of the upper extremities...

Lay Testimony Insufficient to Establish Causation for MS Claimant

Where a police officer had sustained three prior work-related injuries and sought to receive compensation for an alleged injury to his neck, the burden was on the employee to show...

Virginia Widow Loses Death From Radar Beams Claim

In an unusual case in which a surviving spouse claimed that her husband’s death from a heart attack had been caused by his three-week exposure to radar beams at work,...

Florida Teacher’s Fall After His Leg Went to Sleep is Not Compensable

A Florida appellate court affirmed a state JCC’s denial of a claim filed by a teacher who sustained a broken left femur when he lost his balance and fell after...

Battle Continues in Kansas Over Use of 6th Edition of AMA Guides

In the continuing battle in Kansas over the use of the Sixth Edition of the American Medical Association (AMA) Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, a divided Court of...

NY Firefighter Successfully Proved PTSD Claim Based Upon Multiple Gruesome Incidents

Noting that a medical opinion need not be expressed with absolute medical certainty as long as it signified a probability of the underlying cause that was supported by a rational...

Waiting 19 Months to Seek Medical Treatment Proves Fatal to NY Claims Examiner’s Case

A New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that denied benefits to a claims examiner who alleged that she had sustained injuries to her...

Surviving Spouse Fails to Show Causal Connection Between NY Injury and Decedent’s Subsequent Death

A 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...

ND High Court Stresses That Heart Attacks Only Compensable When Caused by Unusual Stress

Construing the state’s special statute limiting the compensability of heart attacks, stroke, and physical injury caused by mental stimulus, a divided Supreme Court of North Dakota reversed an ALJ’s decision...

In Missouri “Upside-Down” Case, Parents Fail to Prove Son’s Death was Caused by Obesity

In an unusual, “upside-down” case, in which the parents of a deceased employee argued that their son’s death was not compensable, because it was caused, in part they claimed, by...

Arkansas Court Stresses Difference Between “Idiopathic” and “Unexplained”

An Arkansas appellate court affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to an employee who suffered mysterious GI bleeding while completing workers’ compensation claims forms at his employer’s facility, and...