Wyoming High Court Says MD’s Certification is Not Required in Odd Lot Cases

Kentucky High Court Construes Mental Injury Statute and Affirms Award

Acknowledging that pursuant to KRS 342.0011(1), Kentucky does not allow recovery for work-related psychological injuries unless they are the “direct result” of a physical injury [emphasis added], the Supreme Court...

NV High Court Reiterates That Undocumented Workers May Recover Indemnity Benefits

The Supreme Court of Nevada reiterated that the state’s workers’ compensation statutes clearly and unambiguously protected every person in the service of an employer, whether lawfully or unlawfully employed, including...

Opinion Mondays: States Shouldn’t Treat PTD Awards as Estate Planning Tools

Iowa Commutation Order Allows for Substantial Inheritable Estate Illustrating just how far some states have moved away from the original workers’ compensation principle that indemnity benefits are not an inheritable...

Nevada Court Affirms PTD Award to Undocumented Worker on Odd-Lot Basis

In an unpublished decision, the Supreme Court of Nevada affirmed an award of permanent total disability benefits to an undocumented worker who sustained severe injuries to his head when a...

Ohio Claimant May Not Receive PTD Benefits Where He Abandons the Workforce

The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed a lower’s court’s decision that an injured worker was not entitled to permanent total disability (PTD) benefits because he had abandoned the workforce [State...

Opinion Mondays: The AMA is on Another Collision Course With Protz

The first session at tomorrow afternoon’s virtual conference, sponsored by Workers’ Compensation Institute, has really piqued my interest. Entitled, “THE NEW AMA Guides®” (hereinafter “the Guides”), it begs the question:...

Florida Employee Awarded PTD Benefits 17 Years After Retirement

In a case in which the original work-related injury occurred two decades before the appellate decision, a Florida appellate court held that a JCC erred in focusing on a claimant's...

Broken Ankle Results in Permanent Total Disability for Nebraska Truck Driver

Illustrating yet again, that the age-old adage that an employer generally takes an employee as it finds him or her, a Nebraska appellate court affirmed a finding by the state’s...

Utah Worker Found to Have Sustained PTD In Spite of His Return to Work

Acknowledging that in most cases in Utah, an injured worker who is capable of returning to work full-time cannot be considered to have sustained permanent total disability, a state appellate...

Virginia Court Says Injuries Occurring Two Years Apart Can Actually Be From the “Same Accident”

Construing Va. Code Ann. § 65.2-503(C), which provides for PTD benefits, rather than PPD benefits, when an individual suffers the loss of use of two limbs in the same accident,...

Ohio Worker Gets PTD Benefits in Spite of Refusing Vocational Rehab

Acknowledging that an employee’s refusal of vocational rehabilitation services can constitute voluntary abandonment of the workforce for disability compensation purposes, an Ohio appellate court held that such a refusal does...