The Special Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court of Tennessee affirmed a trial court’s determination that an employee’s workers’ compensation claim was not timely filed in as much as it had not been filed within... Read More

In Arkansas, a workers’ compensation claimant must ordinarily establish his or her injury claim with medical evidence “supported by objective findings” [see Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-102(4)(D) (Supp. 2019)]. Acknowledging that requirement... Read More

In a trial court proceeding following an employer's appeal of award of benefits awarded by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, it was appropriate to instruct the jury on the so-called "eggshell" theory of medical causation since... Read More

A New York appellate court held sufficient evidence supported the Board's determination that a worker's myocardial infarction was not causally connected to his employment, where the worker's expert opined that it was "possible" that... Read More

In determining whether a "flow-through" or consequential injury is compensable, the claimant need not show that the second injury was foreseeable, given the nature of the first, held an Ohio appellate court. While a claimant was required to... Read More

Virginia's "sudden mechanical or structural change" element serves two functions, held the state's Supreme Court. On the one hand, its purpose was to require that an injury arise from an "accident," and not merely arise as... Read More

Overruling Adcock v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Comm’n , 2015 IL App (2d) 130884WC, and its progeny, to the extent that those decisions held injuries attributable to common bodily movements or routine everyday activities, such as bending... Read More

Where an injured worker died from complications following surgery to treat a medical condition that was tied to a work-related injury that had occurred ten years earlier, his widow was entitled to statutory income benefits under Ky. Rev. Stat. §... Read More

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board of Review that had denied workers’ compensation benefits to a funeral home apprentice director/embalmer who contended his carpal... Read More

In an occupational disease/death case, the evidence in the record did not preponderate against the trial court's determination that a deceased employee's widow failed to establish that her deceased husband’s pancreatic cancer was causally... Read More

Reiterating that the burden is upon the claimant to establish—by competent medical evidence—a causal connection between the employment and the claimed disability, a New York appellate court affirmed a determination by the full Board (in a... Read More

Where the record established that the potential causes of a worker’s syncopal episodes were numerous and complex, the Wyoming Medical Commission did not abuse its discretion by accepting the evidence from seven medical experts, including the worker’s... Read More

By John Stahl, Esq. Widespread confusion regarding the difference between medical causation and legal causation, and why one claim of compensable harm may be accepted while a virtually identical claim or other seemingly “clear cut” case... Read More

Claimant worked 10 years in Jasper County making components for battery cells and developed a rare cancer, IgA myeloma. As a result of either the condition or the stem cell transplant and chemotherapy, he required treatment for about 5 years for kidney... Read More

By John Stahl, Esq. Widespread confusion regarding the difference between medical causation and legal causation, and why one claim of compensable harm may be accepted while a virtually identical claim or other seemingly “clear cut” case... Read More