Stressing that allowing a workers’ compensation insurer to intervene in a third-party civil action filed by an injured worker against the purported tortfeasor would not cause delay and would not necessarily cause confusion among potential jurors... Read More

In a deeply divided decision, the Supreme Court of Colorado reversed, in pertinent part, a decision by a divided division of the state’s Court of Appeals and held that a workers’ compensation carrier’s settlement with a third-party tortfeasor... Read More

In a divided decision, the Supreme Court of North Carolina held an employer and its carrier could not be reimbursement for the outlay of workers' compensation benefits paid to an insured worker where South Carolina motor vehicle law prohibited such... Read More

Construing Oklahoma law, a federal district court ruled that 85A Okla. Stat. § 43, the subrogation provision within Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation law, does not violate Article 23, Section 7 of the state’s Constitution. The federal... Read More

In Arizona, as in virtually all other jurisdictions, an insurance carrier providing workers’ compensation benefits to an injured worker enjoys a lien on a claimant's (or a claimant's dependents') recovery from third persons who negligently... Read More

In Texas, as in most other states, an employer and/or workers’ compensation insurance carrier enjoy strong subrogation rights that allow recovery of the workers’ compensation outlay against third parties that may be responsible for all or... Read More

By Teddy Snyder, Esq., Ringler Associates - Beverly Hills, CA 1. MMSEA reporting makes approval unnecessary for Medicare beneficiaries. Reporting under the Medicare, Medicaid and S-Chip Extension Act, aka “section 111 reporting”, started... Read More

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Patel Memo , the memo that launched the Medicare Secondary Payer industry. We are forced to look back over the past decade and recognize just how far we have come. As the late, great Jerry Garcia would say... Read More

Where the employer joined into a third-party settlement agreement that stated the employer agreed to a payment of a sum certain “in full satisfaction of the defendant/employer’s (and its workers’ compensation insurance carrier’s... Read More

A Missouri appellate court held that the state’s Industrial Relations Commission’s power to order an employee (and his spouse) to repay some $41,000 in medical benefits following the successful settlement of a third-party civil action for... Read More

The Commission went too far to resolve a subrogation dispute after a third party settlement and violated due process of the claimant’s spouse when she was not a party to the comp claim. Graham v. Latco Contractors , 2015 MO App. Lexis 379 (lexis... Read More

Where a surviving spouse of a worker killed in a work-related car accident filed a wrongful death action in a state court and joined a separate federal wrongful death action filed by her son, and the parties eventually settled the claim with the federal... Read More

Where an injured worker (or the worker’s dependents) have accepted workers’ compensation benefits and have further sought to recover over against one or more third parties that are responsible for the worker’s injuries, that worker—or... Read More

Idaho’s 1987 adoption of comparative negligence [see Idaho Code § 6–801] and the abrogation of joint and several liability did not affect the rule established in Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. Adams , 91 Idaho 151, 417 P.2d 417 ... Read More

Under the West Virginia subrogation statute [W. Va. Code § 23–2A–1], a party is entitled to a lien only to the extent that it has actually paid a sum of money. Accordingly, where a mining electrician suffered catastrophic injuries when... Read More