AR - Court Affirms Attorney Fee Award
11/03/2026 | 0
The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed a Workers' Compensation Commission decision awarding a fee to an injured worker's attorney, finding that the employer had controverted the compensability of an employee's back injury.
Though the employer voluntarily paid temporary total disability benefits when the employee had surgery, the appellate court explained that Gregory Roberson still had to litigate compensability. A maxim in Arkansas workers' compensation law is that when the commission finds a case has been controverted in whole or in part, it shall order the employer or
Read More
The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that an excavation contractor was liable for damages to the company that hired it and that it committed a material breach of contract by failing to maintain workers’ compensation coverage.
Case: Scott Excavating Inc. v. Menard Inc., No. 2025-CA-1065-MR, 10/23/2026, unpublished.
Facts: In January 2017, Menard Inc. purchased land in Richmond, Kentucky, for a new retail store. Three months later, Menard contracted with Scott Excavating Inc. for the construction and installation of storm and sanitary sewers.
The total estimated cost of the contract wa
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker struck by a falling object was entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law claim.
Case: Bolanos v. 50 Clinton Property Owner LLC, No. 2025-02105, 10/21/2026, published.
Facts: Hector Bolanos allegedly was injured at a construction site when a cross brace of scaffolding fell from above, causing him to fall.
Procedural history: Bolanos filed suit against 50 Clinton Property Owner LLC, asserting a claim for a violation of Labor Law Section 240(1).
Section 240(1) imposes absolute liability on property owners, general contractors or their agents
The New York State Workers' Compensation Board has developed what it says is a new, improved website search tool.
The new search tool is accessible from anywhere within the website and is touted as quickly producing improved accuracy and more relevant results. Additionally, the old follow-up search function has been removed so that results remain relevant to the original query instead of producing too many irrelevant returns, the WCB said.
The board says it wants to ensure that information is accessible for all website users. A user surve
Workers’ compensation subrogation is one of the few areas of insurance recovery in which a carrier can have a perfectly valid statutory right to reimbursement and still walk away empty-handed.
In many states, the law imposes procedural requirements that can be just as important as the underlying right to recover. A missed deadline, an improperly perfected lien, an unanticipated settlement, an overlooked assignment or a failure to intervene can turn a substantial reimbursement opportunity into an expensive lesson. A recently published California appellate decision illustrates ju
About 40% of the insurance carriers that the Texas Division of Workers' Compensation reviewed in its 2026 performance-based oversight assessments were deemed "high-tier" performers.
PBO results posted to the division's website show 50 of the 124 carriers evaluated last year were placed in the highest performance category. Another 72 were designated "average-tier" performers, and two were labeled "poor-tier" performers.
The 2026 assessment plan focused primarily on the timeliness of paying temporary income benefits, with a maximum of 40 points available,
The National Council on Compensation Insurance is recommending that the Alabama Department of Insurance decrease workers' compensation loss costs by an average of 2.2%, effective March 1.
In a summary of the filing posted to its website, NCCI said it has also recommended a 1.6% increase in assigned risk market rates.
NCCI said the proposed loss cost decrease is primarily driven by a continued decline in claim frequency.
At the same time, the average cost per lost-time claim, after adjusting for inflation, has remained consistent from 2021 through 2024, with no strong upward o
The National Council on Compensation Insurance is recommending a 1.2% decrease in voluntary market loss costs in South Carolina, effective April 1.
In a summary of the loss cost filing submitted to the South Carolina Department of Insurance in October, NCCI said the state has historically experienced a significant number of large claims, particularly those involving severe burns.
The pattern of large claims, both burn- and non-burn related, persisted into 2025 and required selecting an experience period, development and loss ratio trends that reduce the effect of large claims within a single
The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau on Friday announced a new methodology for measuring physician services utilization that produces substantially different results than its traditional measurement based on the number of medical transactions per claim.
The WCIRB said in its report, "A New Measure of Medical Service Utilization: Physician Services and the Factors Driving Change," that under its new resource-based measurement, "utilization" of physician services increased 8% from 2020 through 2025, compared with a 5% decline using the traditional measuremen
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the suspension of an injured volunteer firefighter’s benefits based on the availability of jobs within his vocational and physical capabilities.
Case: Waldman v. Limerick Fire Department (WCAB), No. 1706 C.D. 2024, 10/21/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Steven Waldman injured his back in 2020 while serving as a volunteer firefighter for the Limerick Fire Department.
The department issued a notice of compensation payable for a low-back strain.
In March 2023, the department filed a suspension petition and a petition to modify Waldman’s benef
The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a worker’s settlement of his claim deprived the Workers’ Compensation Commission of jurisdiction over a dispute as to the identity of his statutory employer.
Case: Bridges v. J.L. Rothrock Inc., No. COA26-175, 10/21/2026, unpublished.
Facts and procedural history: Bobby Bridges Jr. injured his back in September 2015. At the time, he was party to a contract with J.L. Rothrock Inc., wherein Rothrock leased a truck owned by Bridges and entered him in the American Emerald Transportation Services Inc. insurance program for workers’
The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld a jury’s verdict finding that a former professional football player’s compensable leg injury caused him to develop a back injury.
Case: In the Matter of Adeboyejo, No. 1040, 10/21/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Quincy Adeboyejo signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in May 2017. He injured his left thigh while running during the team’s rookie minicamp event in May 2018.
Adeboyejo underwent surgery for his injury, then participated in physical therapy, used crutches and walked with a limp. During this postoperative p
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker allegedly injured by a falling piece of plywood was not entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law claim.
Case: Buitrago v. Cascade 553 LLC, No. 2025-05553, 10/21/2026, published.
Facts: David Buitrago allegedly was injured while working at a construction site when a piece of plywood fell and struck him on the head.
Procedural history: Buitrago filed suit against Cascade 553 LLC, asserting a claim for a violation of Labor Law Section 240(1).
Section 240(1) imposes absolute liability on property owners, general contractors or their agents fo
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker should have been granted summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for injuries from falling from a ladder.
Case: Evaristo v. GH 441 1st Fee LLC, No. 2024-13474, 10/21/2026, published.
Facts: Roberto Evaristo allegedly was injured during the demolition of a bathroom ceiling in an apartment unit.
According to Evaristo, he had climbed an A-frame ladder to perform the demolition. The ladder malfunctioned, causing him to fall.
The apartment building was owned by GH 441 1st Fee LLC, and AKI Renovations Group Inc. was the general c
The Workers' Compensation Board of Indiana announced that it will use the same formulas for the 2027 Second Injury Fund assessment as it used for the 2026 assessment.
The board said an assessment is necessary because the fund's balance before Nov. 1 was less than 135% of the previous year's payments, as required by state law.
As of Friday, the fund had paid about $6.9 million in benefits, leaving a remaining balance of about $3.9 million.
Total payments for 2025 were about $7.8 million.
The board has not yet released the amount of the 2027 assessment or the individual assessmen
The California Division of Workers' Compensation updated its proposed attorney fee rules for depositions to provide payment for travel time and transcript review, remove an incremental billing requirement and reduce payments for attorneys with less than 10 years of experience.
The maximum hourly attorney fee for depositions would remain $500 for those who are certified as workers' compensation specialists by the State Bar under revised rules released Wednesday. That rate is unchanged from the rules that the division proposed in January to implement the provision in SB 1160 r