Evidence that an auto dealership employee’s movements were “unusual and awkward” as he attempted to duck under a garage door that was in the process of closing supported the Commission’s findings that he was entitled to workers’ compensation...
A Virginia appellate court affirmed a finding of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission that had apportioned an injured employee’s disability based on her preexisting condition, awarding benefits based upon a 25 percent PPD to the right...
Acknowledging that pursuant to Va. Code § 65.2306(A), an injured worker can be disqualified from receiving workers’ compensation benefits if he or she intentionally engages in activity contrary to a known safety rule imposed by the employer, a state...
Again indicating that Virginia’s “actual risk” doctrine results in the denial of claims in which an employee sustains injuries in a fall in an unobstructed hallway or on steps located in the employer’s premises unless the claimant can show...
An experienced plumber, who sustained a knee injury when he stepped from the rear door of his service van did not sustain an injury arising out of and in the course of the employment, held a Virginia appellate court. Applying the state's "actual risk"...
Quoting Larson's Workers' Compensation Law , and stressing that all medical consequences and sequelae that flow from the primary injury are compensable as long as there is a direct causal link between the primary injury and the additional injury for which...
A Virginia appellate court affirmed a determination by the state's Workers' Compensation Commission denying workers' compensation benefits to a public school security officer who sustained injuries in a fall on school property during a windy day in...
A Virginia appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission that had denied benefits to a truck driver who sustained serious injuries in a vehicle crash on the basis that he had engaged in willful misconduct in violation...
That a Virginia police officer was specifically aware of the state’s special heart-lung presumption of compensability in favor of police officers and certain other types of workers did not mean the two-year statute of limitations for his cardiac condition...
Virginia, which has one of the most restrictive coverage formulae in the nation, generally requires that a claimant show she suffered a “sudden mechanical or structural change to the body” in order to meet the state’s definition of “injury...
That an overnight attendant at a rest area knew his assailant—a former co-employee—and could not show that the assailant’s motives were related to the employment—the assailant committed suicide shortly after the attack—did not mean...
Where an employer sought to terminate an injured worker’s benefits on the grounds that she had unjustifiably refused medical treatment—on three occasions over a four-month period of time, she cancelled a scheduled (and rescheduled) “functional...
The failure of a Virginia bus driver to lock and wear his seatbelt upon picking up passengers—he later sustained serious injuries when his vehicle was struck from behind, careened down a guardrail, and then flipped—constituted willful misconduct under...
Stressing that the convergence of time and place are insufficient to support a compensable injury in Virginia, a state appellate court affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a municipal utility worker who sustained back and leg injuries...
Where there was virtually no evidence that a construction worker’s actions were controlled by the purported employer and where it also appeared that the purported employer exercised little, if any, control over the injured worker’s work or employment...