Worker With Denied Claim Still Had Statutory Duty to Inform BWC of Settlement

The Ohio Supreme Court last week ruled that the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation was entitled to a recovery of the benefits it had paid to an injured worker because she had not given the agency a change to assert a lien against the settlement she negotiated. Even though Loretta M. Verlinger’s claim had been denied, the court said that didn’t stop her from being a “claimant” under the law — with the attendant statutory duty to provide the BWC with notice of her entitlement to a third-party recovery. Verlinger had suffered serious injuries in a car accid...