South Carolina: Commission Was Not Liable for Failing to Notify Fired Attorney of Settlement Hearing

Where a South Carolina law firm negotiated a mediated $120,000 settlement on behalf of an injured worker, was fired one day after the successful mediation, and sent as many as four communications to the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission advising that it claimed an interest in the settlement proceeds, yet received no notice of a hearing at which Commission approved the agreement—without providing for any award of attorney fees—the firm could not sue the Commission for its alleged negligence. The appellate court said the the firm had not properly preserved the issue as to whether or not the Commission’s action was a ministerial act, as opposed to a judicial one. The firm had also failed to allege sufficiently that it sought a ruling on due process grounds. Based on the foregoing, the court held the circuit court did not err in dismissing the action.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Kelaher, Connell & Conner, P.C. v. S.C. Workers’ Comp. Comm’n, 2021 S.C. App. LEXIS 107 (Sept. 8, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 133.03.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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