IL - Employer Sanctioned for Unreasonable Delay in Paying Benefits
04/03/2026 | 0
The Illinois Appellate Court upheld an award of penalties to an injured worker for his employer’s unreasonable delay in paying benefits.
Vincent Secor worked for Concrete Structures of the Midwest as a journeyman concrete carpenter for more than 20 years. His job required repeated heavy lifting, squatting, kneeling and walking.
On Jan. 12, 2017, Secor was instructed to lift a manhole cover to measure air quality. He and a co-worker used rebar hooks to lift the cover and move it.
Secor said he felt a tearing sensation in his back as he slid the manhole cover.
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The Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld a series of decisions by the Workers’ Compensation Commission denying a worker’s allegations that he had not been paid his award of permanent partial disability benefits.
Case: Bridgeman v. SBC Internet Services Inc., No. 2024-WC-01199-COA, 03/10/2026, published.
Facts: Craig Bridgeman worked for SBC Internet Services Inc. He injured his right arm at work in March 2013.
SBC and its insurance carrier accepted liability for the injury but denied that Bridgeman had sustained a permanent disability.
Procedural history: In September 2015, an a...
The Connecticut Appellate Court upheld an award of temporary total disability benefits to a former police officer who became disabled years after he retired.
Case: Martinoli v. Stamford Police Department, No. AC 45229, 03/10/2026, published.
Facts: Louis Martinoli worked for the Stamford Police Department. In January 1999, he established a compensable claim for coronary artery disease, hypertension and congestive heart failure.
Martinoli underwent quadruple bypass surgery in March 1999.
In June 1999, a workers’ compensation commissioner found Martinoli had an average weekly wage of $...
The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that an injured worker was entitled to an increase in her permanent partial disability award.
Case: ACNR Resources v. Goff, No. 25-663, 03/24/2026, published.
Facts: Danielle Goff worked for ACNR Resources Inc. She suffered injuries at work in October 2022 when a rail track fell on her right leg.
Dr. David Hubbard treated Goff immediately after the accident and opined that her X-rays showed a fracture of the right tibia, fibula and ankle.
Hubbard performed surgery on the same day with intramedullary nailing of the right tibia fracture and right distal ...
Understanding how guardian ad litem works is a key component to settling workers’ compensation claims where the applicant lacks the capacity to settle for one reason or another.
Most workers’ compensation cases follow a similar path. An injury occurs, the applicant receives treatment, and once the discovery process is complete, the case is ultimately resolved either through informal negotiations or through trial. Occasionally, a layer of complexity is introduced to the process.
Take the following scenario:
An applicant sustains an industrial injury while worki...
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker was entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for injuries from a fall from a ladder.
Case: Fields v. Junius-Liberty Development LLC, No. 808496/22, 03/12/2026, published.
Facts: Randy Fields suffered injuries while working at a construction site when he fell from a ladder.
Fields was repairing a ceiling leak at the time of the accident. His work involved cutting a hole in the ceiling with a drywall knife and an electric saw while standing on a ladder.
According to Fields, he fell when the unsecured ladder gave way beneath him.
Proc...
Prosecutors in Southern California announced that the owner of a construction company was charged with six counts of felony workers' compensation fraud with an alleged loss of about $519,000.
Jonah Slatky, 53, pleaded not guilty at a March 27 arraignment.
Slatky owns Grand Custom, a rough framing construction business in Somis. The Ventura County District Attorney's Office said he is accused of underreporting payroll for the six years between July 2019 and July 2025. Each count represents a policy year in which he allegedly reported no employees or payroll.
An investigation rev...
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek enacted a bill to create a tiered structure for temporary total and permanent total disability benefits.
Currently, benefits are two-thirds of a worker's weekly wages and capped at 133% of the state's average weekly wage.
Under SB 1519, enacted Tuesday, benefits will be 75% of the portion of a worker's wage that is equal to or less than 75% of the state's average weekly wage, and 65% of the portion of the worker's wage that is greater than 75% of the SAWW. Benefits would still be capped at 133% of the statewide average wage.
SB 1519 also does n...
Health care technology firm Office Ally announced on Thursday that it has acquired Jopari Solutions, a clearinghouse focused on property and casualty claims and electronic payments.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal adds Jopari’s network for workers’ compensation and auto medical claims, along with its clinical attachments and payment tools, to Office Ally’s clearinghouse platform, which the company says connects more than 80,000 health care organizations and processes more than 1 billion transactions annually.
The acquisition broadens Office Ally’s reach ...
A divided Ohio Supreme Court upheld a worker's enhanced award for injuries from a conveyor belt accident due to his employer's violation of a specific safety requirement.
Keith Rice worked in the maintenance department for Whirlpool Corp.
On Nov. 28, 2017, after learning that multiple conveyors were not working, Rice walked the machine lines to identify the problem.
Rice came to a point that required him to cross over a conveyor. The designated crossing point consisted of a ladder affixed to either side of the conveyor line, and atop each ladder was a small platform welded to t...
A federal appellate court upheld summary judgment dismissing an injured longshoreman’s claims of vessel negligence against a technical manager.
Case: Renteria v. Grieg Star AS, No. 25-20131, 03/06/2026, published.
Facts: Balvina Renteria was a longshore worker employed by Cooper/Ports America. On her third day of unloading cargo from the M/V Star Juventas, Renteria stepped on plastic sheeting covering a gap between stacked cargo and fell 10 feet to the steel deck of the cargo hold.
The cargo consisted of 10-foot-tall rolls of kraft liner board stacked with airbags in some of the gaps ...
A Texas appellate court upheld a take-nothing judgment on an injured longshoreman’s negligence claims.
Case: Norman v. Kahn Scheepvaart BV, No. 14-24-00176-CV, 03/31/2026, published.
Facts: Kahn Scheepvaart BV owns and operates the M/V Fairload. In June 2015, the Fairload docked at the Port of Houston. It was carrying a 217-ton boiler and its specialized lifting frame, sometimes referred to as a spreader bar.
Longshore workers from stevedore “Cooper/T. Smith” participated in the heavy lift operation. Franchae Norman was one of the longshoremen participating.
A member of t...
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker should have been granted partial summary judgment on his Labor Law claims and that the defendant should have been awarded conditional contractual indemnification from a third party.
Case: Stewart v. JMDH Real Estate Offices LLC, No. 159073/20 595629/21, 03/12/2026, published.
Facts: Max Stewart suffered injuries while working on a construction project when he tripped over a raised Masonite board.
Procedural history: Stewart filed suit against JMDH Real Estate Offices LLC, asserting claims for negligence and violations of the Labor Law...
NATL. - CopperPoint Names Kellen Booher CEO
CopperPoint Insurance on Wednesday named Kellen Booher president and CEO, succeeding Marc Schmittlein, who is retiring from the role after leading the company’s transformation over the past decade.
Booher joined the Phoenix-based workers' compensation and commercial insurer in 2025 as president and chief operating officer, overseeing field and operating functions and helping advance strategic initiatives.
Schmittlein will remain as chair of the board. Schmittlein, who joined the company in 2016, led its transition from a single-state, monoline workers' compensation ins...
The Louisiana House Education Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to advance legislation aimed at strengthening protections for teachers and other school employees in cases involving student assaults.
HB 283 would require the immediate suspension and removal of a student accused of assaulting or battering a school employee, regardless of whether the incident occurs on or off campus.
The bill also mandates expulsion for at least two semesters for students found guilty of assault, with placement in alternative education settings and participation in anger management programs. It removes a...
Lawmakers in Louisiana are considering legislation that would revise key aspects of the state’s workers' compensation system, including how maximum medical improvement is defined and how long certain wage-loss benefits are paid.
HB 1101, introduced Tuesday, would for the first time define maximum medical improvement, or MMI, in statute as the point at which an employee’s condition is unlikely to substantially improve, even if ongoing treatment is needed to manage symptoms or chronic pain.
The proposal would tie the duration of temporary total disability benefits to that ...
