OH - Terms of Worker's Payment of BWC Lien Doesn't Bar His Claim for Refund of Overpayment
05/04/2026 | 0
An Ohio appellate court ruled that a worker’s payment of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s asserted subrogation lien on his third-party settlement did not bar him from demanding a refund for the amount he overpaid.
Lamar Thomas suffered injuries in a work-related car accident. The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation allowed Thomas’ claim for a cervical and lumbar sprain.
Thomas also brought a negligence action against a third party for causing the accident that resulted in his injuries. Following the settlement of his third-party claim, the BWC asserted a right ...
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West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld the denial of a worker’s claim of injury to his neck and shoulder.
Case: Crampton v. Express Services Inc., No. 25-ICA-393, 04/07/2026, published.
Facts: In October 2024, Jack Crampton went to the hospital and complained of severe pain in his left arm that went all the way down to his hand. He reported waking up with shoulder pain radiating down to his wrist about 12 days prior and denied any precipitating injury. Crampton said his symptoms came on suddenly and worsened.
Physician assistant Stephanie Hamilton assessed Crampton...
A New York appellate court ruled that the defendants in a Labor Law action were not entitled to summary judgment dismissing the claims against them or on their claims against each other.
Case: Simone v. Colin Development LLC, No. 2022-07309, 04/08/2026, published.
Facts: Russell Simone Sr. worked for Hauppauge Office Park Associates LLC as an office building's superintendent. HOP owned the complex where the office was located.
HOP had an oral contract with Colin Development LLC whereby Colin was to act as the property manager for the office buildings.
F.W. Sims Group Inc. pro...
A New York appellate court ruled that some of a salesman’s Labor Law claims for his injuries were properly dismissed on summary judgment, and his employer was entitled to summary judgment dismissing the third-party claims against it.
Case: Lardiere v. Site 6 DSA Owner LLC, No. 153260/18, 595818/18, 595217/20, 596072/21, 595014/24, 04/14/2026, published.
Facts: Rosario Lardiere worked as a salesman for Gil-Bar Industries. He allegedly suffered injuries while visiting a construction site where he had brokered the sale of air handlers to Peepels Mechanical Corp.
Peepels was the heating, ...
Diclofenac is becoming an increasingly popular medication in workers’ compensation and auto accident cases. It is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug available as a pill or as a topical medication.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 1% diclofenac as a topical treatment to provide pain relief. The 1% concentration is sold over the counter under a variety of generic labels or under the brand name Voltaren, usually selling for about for $12-$25 per tube.
In workers’ compensation and auto accident cases, an alarming trend is sweeping the market. Instead of telling p...
Transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft would be the statutory employer of drivers who are actively picking up or transporting passengers, under a bill introduced in Ohio.
To secure workers' compensation coverage for their drivers during the periods they're classified as employees, HB 840 would require TNCs to make quarterly payments to the Bureau of Workers' Compensation. The amount due would be set by the administrator and based on the total amount of time company drivers are actively engaged in transporting passengers.
The administrator would also be allowed to ...
Hawaii lawmakers voted to send a bill to the governor clarifying processes relating to vocational rehabilitation services.
HB 1514 would require injured workers who elect to enroll in a vocational rehabilitation program to select a certified provider within 30 days. If the injured worker doesn't select a provider within 30 days, the employer would be required to make a selection. There does not appear to be a deadline for the employer to select a voc rehab provider in the bill.
Providers would be required to automatically approve vocational rehabilitation services for injured worker...
A Washington state appeals court has cleared the way for the Department of Labor and Industries to recover nearly $150,000 in overpayments from a vocational school with a job placement rate of 3.9%.
The Washington Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected an appeal from Office Careers, affirming that L&I was within its rights to recoup funds and to terminate the school's provider status.
L&I revoked Office Careers' authorization and stopped sending it injured workers after a 2019 audit found that the percentage of students employed after completing a training program was well ...
An Ohio appellate court upheld the dismissal of a worker’s challenge to the administrative denial of his claim for benefits.
Case: Larrick v. W&S Construction LLC, No. 8-25-14, 04/13/2026, published.
Facts and procedural history: Jeremy L. Larrick filed a workers’ compensation claim, asserting that he had suffered injuries while working for W&S Construction LLC in November 2023.
The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation denied Larrick’s claim. A district hearing officer affirmed, finding that Larrick had not met his burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidenc...
West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld a finding of compensability for a truck driver’s neck sprain caused by being rear-ended by another tractor-trailer.
Case: Haulin’ Jack Shipping Service Inc. v. Jackson, No. 25-ICA-378, 04/07/2026, published.
Facts: Thomas Jackson underwent a C5-T1 laminectomy and decompression surgery in September 2020. He then had postoperative complications that led to septic shock.
Dr. Scott Brown diagnosed Jackson with an abscess in the epidural space of the cervical spine, cervical radiculopathy at C5, physical decondition...
A New York appellate court ruled that a mason should have been granted summary judgment on his Labor Law claim and that the defendants were entitled to conditional summary judgment on their indemnification claim against his employer.
Case: Moreno-Santos v. Real Builders Inc., No. 26421/19, 04/09/2026, published.
Facts: Jairo Moreno-Santos worked as a mason for North South Masonry Inc. He suffered injuries when he fell from a ladder while working on a construction project.
According to Moreno-Santos, the ladder was only the upper part of an extension ladder that had been separated from ...
A New York appellate court upheld the summary dismissal of a worker’s Labor Law claims for his injuries from being hit by a rock while working in a trench.
Case: Veloso v. City of New York, No. 158128/20, 04/09/2026, published.
Facts: Armindo Veloso was injured when he was hit by a rock while working in a trench. At the time of the injury, he was working on the excavation of the trench, in which utility lines were to be placed, and on shoring the sides.
Procedural history: Veloso filed suit against the City of New York, asserting claims for negligence and violations of the Labor Law.
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The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau on Thursday submitted its annual advisory pure premium rate filing to the California Department of Insurance.
The WCIRB is recommending that the department increase the advisory pure premium rate by 10.4%. The average proposed advisory rate for policies incepting on or after Sept. 1 would be $1.71 per $100 of payroll, up from $1.55.
Key drivers of the proposed increase include higher loss development, rising medical costs, increasing frequency of cumulative trauma claims, and sharp growth in average allocated loss adjustment expens...
NATL. - WCRI: Rural Hospital Closures Disrupt Access, Not Costs
Hospital closures in rural areas disrupt access to care for injured workers but do not significantly increase workers’ compensation claim costs or the duration of disability benefits, according to a Workers Compensation Research Institute study released Thursday.
The study found that when rural hospitals close, injured workers travel an average of 5 miles farther to reach emergency care and are 3.6 percentage points less likely to use emergency services after work-related injuries.
Despite these changes in access, researchers found little to no impact on medical payments per clai...
A Texas appellate court affirmed a decision denying a family's bid for workers' compensation death benefits, ruling that it could not find error in a lower court's decision to exclude an expert's opinion as unreliable.
The same issues that rendered the expert's opinion unpersuasive also doomed any non-expert evidence suggesting that John Hill contracted COVID-19 through his employment with Brazoria County, the court said in finding no error with the trial court granting no-evidence summary judgment for the county.
"In short, [the expert] did not explain his...
A federal appellate court ruled that a worker needs to prove only that he worked for 125 days in coal mines during a calendar year to have a “year” of qualifying coal mine employment for purposes of the Black Lung Benefits Act presumption.
Case: Hayes v. OWCP, No. 24-11260, 04/07/2026, published.
Facts: Ermine Hayes worked for Cowin & Co. from 1955 to 1986. Hayes intermittently worked underground constructing mine shafts, but not all of his work was done in mines.
Procedural history: In 2015, Hayes filed a claim under the Black Lung Benefits Act.
An administrative...
