Court Faults Judge for Undertaking Independent Analysis of Worker's Physical Abilities

A New York appellate court is ordering a workers’ compensation judge to reassess a permanently injured worker’s lost earning capacity, saying the judge erred in independently assessing the medical evidence to determine the worker’s exertional ability. Case: Matter of Golovashchenko v. Asar International Corp., No. 524464, 09/14/2017. Facts and procedural history: Leonid Golovashchenko emigrated from Ukraine to the United States in 1997. He began working as an asbestos handler for the Asar International Corp. In 2009, a piece of plywood fell on Golovashchenko while he ...