NATL. - WCRI Links Attorney Representation to Lower Physical Health, Recovery Scores
10/21/2026 | 0
Injured workers represented by attorneys reported worse physical health and recovery scores than those without legal representation, according to a new report by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.
The study, however, does not establish whether attorney involvement contributes to poorer recovery or whether other differences between represented and unrepresented workers explain the gap.
WCRI identified two possible explanations for its findings: Workers with more complicated injuries may be more likely to hire attorneys and less likely to recover fully, or attorney involve
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A New York appellate court upheld a decision by the Workers’ Compensation Board denying the reopening, rehearing or reconsideration of a worker’s claim.
Case: Matter of Buscemi v. Prime Care Coordination, No. CV-23-0761, 10/15/2026, published.
Facts: Aaron Buscemi worked as a manager of quality and compliance for Prime Care Coordination. He filed a workers’ compensation claim alleging that he sustained injuries to the head, eyes and ears in the form of migraines as a result of working in an office in a warehouse.
Procedural history: A workers’ compensation law judge
The Kansas Court of Appeals upheld a determination that a worker suffered a compensable back injury, even though he was "a dubious historian."
Case: Wood v. SB Manufacturing Inc., No. 128,592, 10/16/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Thomas Wood worked for SB Manufacturing Inc. He injured his back at work in March 2022.
Wood saw a chiropractor who said Wood reported hurting his back when he fell into a bathtub at home.
The chiropractor referred Wood to an affiliated medical doctor, who treated Wood with an injection of Toradol.
Wood received no other documented treatment, but several of
A New York appellate court upheld the denial of a transit worker’s claim for post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by cleaning up the blood from a passenger’s accident.
Case: Matter of Brown v. New York City Transit Authority, No. CV-23-2457, 10/15/2026, published.
Facts: Julius Brown worked for the New York City Transit Authority. In September 2020, he was informed of an accident on a platform.
Brown responded and observed a woman whose foot had been mangled after being caught between the platform and a train door. After emergency medical personnel took her to the hospital,
One of the trade-offs of Wisconsin’s workers’ compensation system is that for injuries sustained at work, it is nearly always the exclusive remedy available to injured employees. There are some narrow exceptions, and employees can still make a third-party claim against an at-fault non-employee, but the rule generally means that employees are limited to the remedies afforded by the workers’ compensation act.
Dodge v. Didion Milling Inc. examines the efforts of employees to escape the limits of the workers’ compensation act and pursue a civil action against
Seven construction contractors have been cited for willful and serious safety violations related to excavation hazards at a large jobsite in Monroe, according to an announcement from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
OSHA said struck-by, cave-in, fall and chemical hazards posed danger to workers at the 18-acre Monroe Commons project site northwest of New York City. Excavation resulted in the formation of a steep, unstable embankment nearly 75 feet high that was not properly sloped or shored against a potential collapse, OSHA said.
The federal work safety agenc
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is holding a hearing Dec. 3 to take testimony on proposed rules that would implement Labor Code changes creating penalties for "enterprise-wide" and "egregious" violations.
Senate Bill 606, signed in 2021, created the new classifications of citations.
Enterprise-wide violations occur when an employer with more than one worksite either has a written policy and procedure that violates safety and health standards or exhibits a pattern or practice of the same violation or violations at more than one worksite.
An egreg
The Oklahoma Attorney General said state lawmakers can decide how to spend nearly $500,000 held in a pair of funds created as part of the failed bid to bring a Texas-style opt-out option to employers.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Wednesday opined that the $201,697 held in the Oklahoma Option Insured Guaranty Fund and the $277,723 in the Option Self-Insured Guaranty Fund are no longer being held in trust following the 2019 repeal of the Oklahoma Employee Injury Benefit Act.
"The Legislature should exercise sound judgment in accordance with Article V, Sections 36 and 55 of t
The New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division upheld a 24% increase in a worker’s permanent impairment from the second of two back injuries.
Case: Lawhon v. County of Monmouth, No. A-3070-24, 10/14/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Jason Lawhon worked for the County of Monmouth as a heavy equipment operator. He injured his back at work in October 2021.
Lawhon worked for the county full time, and starting in 2023, he began working an additional 20 hours each week at Home Depot. According to Lawhon, he began working part time at Home Depot to make ends meet because his wife lost her
A divided Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a university employee’s injury that happened during a costume contest at a mandatory work meeting was not compensable.
Case: Mirretti v. IWCC, No. 3-26-0126WC, 10/13/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Armaline Mirretti worked for Elmhurst University in the Office of Admissions. She filed a workers’ compensation claim, asserting that she had injured her right foot and ankle in October 2023.
At the hearing on Mirretti’s claim, witnesses testified that Elmhurst (whose mascot is the bluejay) holds a mandatory meeting, called the B
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker should have been granted summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for his fall from a ladder.
Case: De Souza v. 4720 Third Ave LLC, 10/13/2026, published.
Facts: Osmair Sebastio De Souza fell from an unsecured, 8-foot A-frame ladder while working on a construction project.
He testified that he was removing plywood sheets from the ceiling above him, and one of them struck the ladder.
According to De Souza, he was on the sixth step of the ladder when the plywood fell. His co-worker said De Souza was on the second step of the ladder.
Procedural h
A New York appellate court upheld a grant of summary judgment for a worker on his Labor Law claim for his injury from trying to prevent a beam from falling.
Case: Mitchell v. Pullman SST Inc., No. 30447/19, 10/13/2026, published.
Facts: Paul Mitchell was the foreman of a five-man crew tasked with lifting large metal beams from the ground to the top of a 14-foot-tall rolling tower used to build sidewalk sheds.
To pass up the metal beams, Mitchell and Hugh Nelson stood on the ground; Brian Bryne stood on the tower's intermediate 7-foot-high platform; and two co-workers stood at the top of
Inspectors from the Office of the Chief State's Attorney arrested three business owners Friday on suspicion of workers' compensation fraud.
Luis Pomaquiza, 42, of Southington; Jordan Tyler, 36, of Marlborough; and Solomon Sade, age 47, of Westport, were processed on warrants and released on $10,000 surety bonds, the state said.
Pomaquiza, the owner of LA Roofing LLC in Middletown, was charged with defrauding a workers’ compensation insurance carrier. Agents from the Department of Labor’s Wage & Workplace Standards Division visit
The California Division of Workers' Compensation on Monday announced the standards it will use for profile audit review of adjusting locations throughout the state in 2027.
The DWC said the PAR performance standard for 2027 audits is 1.67327. Audit subjects with scores equal to or lower than the performance standard will be required to pay any unpaid compensation but will not be assessed administrative penalties. Claims shops with a higher score will be subject to an expanded full compliance audit.
The full compliance audit standard for 2027 is 2.14192. Adjusting locations that receive a
The Oregon Workers' Compensation Division posted a bulletin announcing 2027 assessment rates, which are unchanged from 2026.
The division announced that the premium assessment rate for 2027 will remain at 9.8%.
The premium assessment funds operations of the division, the Workers' Compensation Board, most of the state's Division of Occupational Safety and Health and other parts of the Department of Consumer and Business Services.
The division also levies additional assessments on self-insured employers to support the Self-Insured Employer Adjustment Reserve and the Self-Insured E
The Court of Appeals of the State of Nevada affirmed a decision finding that a firefighter failed to establish that a restriction on fire suppression duties alone rendered him totally incapable of working in the role.
As a result, the court on Tuesday held that the evidence supports a hearing officer's determination that Timothy Gold was not eligible for permanent total disability benefits under the law governing occupational lung disease claims for first responders.
Gold, a Las Vegas firefighter, filed a workers' compensation claim in 2021 for occupational asthma. He retired in Apri
