Substantial evidence supported a decision by New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board that denied benefits to a claims examiner who contended she suffered a shoulder injury in a work-related fall at her office where she waited 19 months before... Read More
A WCLJ’s decision to give no weight to medical opinions offered by two medical experts—an independent medical examiner and the deceased employee’s treating physician—because both experts had entered into significant ex parte contact... Read More
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... Read More
A safety and security officer, who filed a claim seeking to recover workers’ compensation benefits for alleged Lyme disease almost six years after he filed a report with his employer indicating he had suffered two tick bites, failed to establish... Read More
A finding by New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board that surgery related to an injured employee’s back condition should not be approved was error, held a state appellate court, where the Board’s decision (affirming that of a WCLJ... Read More
Construing Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 101(3)(a)(I) and 101(3.7), pursuant to which impairment ratings in workers’ compensation claims must be “based on” the revised third edition of AMA Guides, a Colorado appellate court said... Read More
An award of benefits for an employee’s stress fracture in her right foot was appropriate, held a Mississippi appellate court, in spite of the fact that her physician had testified that the employee’s repetitive activity at work was a “possible”... Read More
In Arkansas, a workers’ compensation claimant must ordinarily establish his or her injury claim with medical evidence “supported by objective findings” [see Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-102(4)(D) (Supp. 2019)]. Acknowledging that requirement... Read More
In a trial court proceeding following an employer's appeal of award of benefits awarded by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, it was appropriate to instruct the jury on the so-called "eggshell" theory of medical causation since... Read More
The language in Kan. Stat. Ann. 2019 Supp. § 44-510e(a)(2)(B) requiring use of the 6th Edition of the American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment should reasonably be interpreted as a "guideline,"... Read More
Stressing the importance of expert medical testimony in establishing a connection between cancer and the work environment, an appellate court in Texas affirmed a trial court's order granting a former employer summary judgment in a case in which the... Read More
A New York appellate court held sufficient evidence supported the Board's determination that a worker's myocardial infarction was not causally connected to his employment, where the worker's expert opined that it was "possible" that... Read More
Stressing that the issue of abandonment of the labor market is an issue for the Board, a New York appellate court affirmed the denial of disability benefits to a worker who sustained a clearly compensable injury--she was struck by falling scaffolding... Read More
Where claimant's physician testified that it was "difficult to determine" when claimant's meniscus tear occurred and that there was "a strong possibility" that something which happened at work could have exacerbated claimant's... Read More
Acknowledging that the statutory presumption of correctness afforded the opinion of an independent medical evaluator who had been selected from Tennessee's Medical Impairment Registry ("MIR") could be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence... Read More