Court Denies PTSD Benefits, Finding Gruesome Accident Scene Part of Trooper's Job

Mental trauma suffered by a Virginia state trooper who came across a mutilated body that had been dragged by a car for nearly a mile is not compensable because the incident was not unusual for a law enforcement officer, a state appellate court ruled. The Court of Appeals of Virginia last week affirmed a decision by the Workers' Compensation Commission to deny benefits to State Trooper Dustin Hess. Most U.S. states grant workers' compensation benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder. But the majority of them also include an exception in their statutes that can b...