Pennsylvania: Court Finds Entire Impairment Rating Evaluation Process Unconstitutional, based upon Protz

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that one legal effect of the recent decision of the state’s Supreme Court, in Protz v. Workers' Comp. Appeal Bd. (Derry Area Sch. Dist.), 161 A.3d 827 (Pa. 2017), was essentially to undermine the legal authority for the entire impairment rating evaluation (IRE) process set forth within the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act. Accordingly, it was error for the Board to affirm a decision by the workers’ compensation judge that reduced claimant’s benefits from full to partial based upon the unconstitutional scheme. The court indicated that no other provision of the Act allowed for the modification of benefits based upon an IRE.

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.

See Thompson v. Workers' Comp. Appeal Bd. (Exelon Corp.), 2017 Pa. Comp. LEXIS 596 (Aug. 16, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 131.05.

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