Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter , is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation. For the past five or six years, I’ve shared with readers...
The evidence supported a WCJ’s finding that a “no-holds-barred” meeting, at which a former police officer was singled out for criticism, and which digressed into an abusive, vulgar, shouting match, was an extraordinary and unusual event, such...
In a divided decision, an Arizona appellate court affirmed the denial of a police officer’s PTSD claim, agreeing with the state’s Industrial Commission that the officer had failed to show that he had been subjected to “unexpected, unusual or extraordinary” stress...
The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, construing W. Va. Code § 23-4-1f, pursuant to which mental injury claims are generally disqualified from coverage unless caused by physical means, affirmed the denial of a claim filed by a gaming parlor cashier who...
The 52-week filing requirement related to first responder PTSD claims in § 112.1815(5)(d), Fla. Stat., runs from the date of the qualifying event specified in the statute and not from the date the first responder manifests PTSD symptoms, held a Florida appellate...
A New York appellate court held that in order to establish a claim for PTSD, it was insufficient for a state correctional officer to show that he had been made to feel threatened--an inmate threatened to do bodily harm to the officer's family--he must instead...
The schedule benefits section of the District of Columbia's public-sector workers' compensation law, D.C. Code § 1-623.07 (2016 Repl.), does not provide for the payment of benefits for a worker's PTSD, held an appellate court, in spite of the worker's...
An Arizona appellate court reversed a decision of the state’s Industrial Commission that denied a PTSD claim filed by a deputy sheriff, finding the Commission had concentrated on the unusual nature of the event which triggered the deputy’s PTSD instead...
Acknowledging that in Washington there were some circumstances in which an employee could recover for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), e.g., if it had been caused by a sudden and tangible happening, and had occurred “from without,” [see Wash. Rev. Code §...
Prior to a 2013 amendment to Minn. Stat. § 176.011, subd. 16, Minnesota provided no workers’ compensation coverage for mental injuries that had a mental stimulus as their origin. Since then, however, coverage has been provided to those employees diagnosed...
A county public defender, who alleged that she sustained a mental injury in the form of PTSD following a harrowing period of time in which she was allegedly stalked and harassed by a "client," may move ahead with a civil action filed against her employer...
By Robert J. Grace, Jr., Esq. & Lyle Platt, Esq. Since publication of our last edition of Dubreuil’s Florida Workers’ Compensation Handbook (LexisNexis), legislative activity was confined to a popularly supported bill regarding first responders...
Construing the Supreme Court of Ohio’s important, earlier decision in Armstrong v. John R. Jurgensen Co. , 136 Ohio St. 3d 58, 2013-Ohio-2237, 990 N.E.2d 568, a lower-level Ohio appellate court held that while there must be a causal relationship between a claimant...
A Virginia appellate court affirmed, in relevant part, a state Workers’ Compensation Commission’s finding that a firefighter paramedic’s work-related experiences over his 17-year career caused his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), not family...
Construing Ohio law, a federal district court in that state denied an employer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a civil action filed by an employee in which the employee alleged that he suffered severe mental pain and suffering and psychological...