Louisiana: Worker’s Indemnity Reduced by 50 Percent for Failure to Follow Rehabilitation Order

An injured worker’s unwillingness to participate in an adult education program in order to obtain his GED as part of an approved vocational rehabilitation program justified reducing the worker’s weekly indemnity benefits by 50 percent, held a Louisiana appellate court. The court noted that the injured worker took the GED test twice, but on each occasion failed to enroll in and take any remedial classes that would have helped his performance. Without the remedial courses, the worker failed the GED exam on both occasions. The court noted that the worker had not requested a modification of the rehabilitation order and had generally failed to cooperate in his recovery. The factual findings of the WCJ were reasonable under the circumstances.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Willis Knighton Health System v. Sims, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 1252 (June 24, 2015) [2015 La. App. LEXIS 1252 (June 24, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 84.01 [84.01]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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