The Missouri Commission was justified in filing that an injured worker did not suffer from a permanent total disability where evidence indicated that following his injuries, the worker worked on a full-time, seasonable basis, held a state appellate court. Based...
An award to an injured employee could be made on a permanent partial disability basis—he was not limited to a scheduled award—where the employee suffered a torn quadriceps tendon in his lower extremity, but medical evidence indicated that while the worker’s “injury...
Where a claimant sustained an injury in August 2008, was examined by the insurer’s medical examiner in November 2018, and found to have reached MMI and to have sustained a permanent impairment to her lumbar spine (class 2, severity A ranking), it was not error...
Where an employer’s examining physician opined that the workers’ compensation claimant had fully recovered from her injuries—the physician based his opinion, in large part, on the fact that claimant had not sought medical treatment from any physician...
Where a Florida worker sustained work-related injuries to her neck, back, and right shoulder in 2002, and subsequently suffered a psychiatric injury, in the form of depression, as a result of the injury and, prior to reaching MMI status, successfully petitioned...
Where an injured employee sustained a laceration over the eye -- a condition admitted by the employer -- and later sought reinstatement of his disability benefits, the burden was on the employee to establish his entitlement to benefits based on an actual disability;...
An Ohio appellate court held that where medical factors alone precluded an injured worker from enjoying sustained remunerative employment, there was no practical purpose for the Commission to consider non-medical factors such as vocational rehabilitation or the...
Observing that the Illinois Legislature had indicated a strong preference for period payments, rather than lump sum awards, a state appellate court recently held it was error for a state trial court to order immediate payment, in a lump sum, of all PPD benefits...
That a permanently disabled claimant subsequently suffered a massive stroke that was unrelated to her workplace injury and which left her completely incapacitated and unable to care for herself did not alter the fact that she was still permanently disabled under...
In a split decision, the Supreme Court of Idaho held that the plain wording of Idaho Code Ann. §§ 72-425 and 72-430 require that all personal and economic circumstances that diminish the ability of the claimant to compete in an open labor market must be considered...
An injured Pennsylvania worker, whose disability status was modified from permanent to temporary in 2008, based upon a 2006 impairment rating evaluation (IRE), who then exhausted her 500 weeks of partial disability benefits and, within three years of the last payment...
Labor Code Section 4662 (a) provides that any of the following permanent disabilities shall be conclusively presumed to be total in character: loss of both eyes or the sight thereof, loss of both hands or the use thereof, an injury resulting in a practically total...
Recently, in Eyad v. Airport Commuter, Inc. , 2018 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 85 (Appeals Board noteworthy panel decision), a panel of commissioners with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) adopted and incorporated a decision by a Workers’ Compensation...
Labor Code Section 4660(d) provides that California’s Permanent Disability Rating Schedule (PDRS) shall promote consistency, uniformity and objectivity when it comes to determining an injured worker’s permanent disability. From reading this section, one could assume...
Go v. Sutter Solano Medical Center is one of series of panel cases addressing the question of whether an employee can obtain TD and PD benefits based on medical treatment that was denied through UR and IMR. As the panel in Go points out, in the context of a UR...