PA - Court Rejects Constitutional Challenges to New IRE Provisions
05/13/2024 | 0
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania rejected a worker’s constitutional challenges to the state’s new impairment rating evaluation scheme but declined to impose costs and fees on him for raising the same challenges it has already rejected.
Louis Kober Jr. was a police officer for the City of Philadelphia. He suffered injuries in a work-related motor vehicle accident in August 2016.
Kober collected temporary total disability benefits via the Heart and Lung Act after the accident.
In September 2021, Kober underwent an impairment rating evaluation by Dr. Michael B. Fischer, who a...
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The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld a finding that a worker suffered a consequential injury to her left shoulder from overuse after injuring her right shoulder at work and that they qualified as schedule injuries.
Case: Nordstrom Inc. v. Carmer, No. 23-1423, 05/08/2024, published.
Facts: Pamela Carmer worked for Nordstrom Inc. She injured her right shoulder at work in August 2018.
Dr. Brendan Patterson performed surgery on the shoulder in December 2018. He released Carmer to return to work “as tolerated” in May 2019.
In the fall of 2020, Carmer requested medical care fro...
The North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld a denial of benefits to a truck driver with a history of chronic pain for an alleged hip injury.
Case: Hanson v. Marten Transport Ltd., No. COA23-843, 05/07/2024, unpublished.
Facts: Roger W. Hanson suffered from chronic pain in his neck, lower back and left knee. He sought medical treatment at Solas Health in October 2018, reporting low-back pain that radiated into his legs.
Hanson underwent back surgery in January 2019, and he was cleared to return to work without restrictions in November 2019.
In June 2020, Hanson began working for Marten ...
A New York appellate court ruled that the defendants in a personal injury action failed to establish they were protected by workers’ compensation exclusivity.
Case: Dolores v. Grandpa's Bus Co. Inc., No. 2021-01198, 05/08/2024, published.
Facts: Cleotilde Dolores was injured when a school bus she was driving was struck by Samuel Bercy. The bus was owned by Grandpa's Bus Co. Inc.
Procedural history: Dolores filed suit against GBC and Bercy, seeking damages. The defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, contending that the parties had a special employment r...
LOS ANGELES, April 22, 2024 - Sullivan on Comp, the leading comprehensive digital resource on California workers' compensation law, proudly announces the launch of ChatSOC, an advanced chatbot designed to streamline workers' compensation inquiries for professionals in the field. Officially launching today, ChatSOC integrates directly with the Sullivan on Comp digital treatise, provid...
Long before analyzing the 2024 workers' comp telemedicine markets, and years before COVID-19 caused an instant explosion of telehealth appointments, I was looking for technology.
I discovered a teledoc vendor. You can read an article I wrote in 2015 on workers' comp telemedicine.
The process made sense for minor injuries even in 2015. I wrote an associated article that was met with skepticism concerning telehealth appointments for workers' comp.
Two more recent articles or webpages on 2024 workers' comp telemedicine came from Conce...
IA - Pork Processor Wrongly Granted Summary Judgment in Staffing Agency Worker Suit
A pork processing company was prematurely granted summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by an injured staffing agency employee because of lingering questions over the worker’s employee status, the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
Emerson Dennis Saul sued Sioux City-based Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC for negligence over injuries he says he sustained in July 2019 after being “slammed” between two pallets that were struck by a forklift operated by a Seaboard Triumph worker.
Saul filed a workers compensation claim against his employer, a staffing agency that placed him in t...
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday that it cited the operator of multiple psychiatric and rehabilitation facilities for the third time in five years after workers were killed or seriously injured by violent patients.
OSHA cited Melbourne, Florida-based Circles of Care Inc. for a “repeat violation and an other-than-serious violation for various safety and health failures and issued $101,397 in proposed penalties.
The agency said Circles of Care failed to provide sufficient controls designed to prevent the “escalation of acts of aggr...
A divided Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld an award of permanent disability benefits to a former police officer who was beaten while responding to a call that she believed to have been set up by the chief of police.
Stephanie Moffett was a police officer for the City of Verona. She was the only female in the department.
On Feb. 27, 2017, Moffett was dispatched to handle a domestic dispute at an apartment building.
When she arrived, she saw Sylvester Sykes, who had previously assaulted her while she was on duty. Sykes threw what appeared to be crack cocaine on the floor and announced that...
A Florida appellate court overturned an award for attendant care provided by a worker’s husband, finding that the judge failed to determine which services qualified as compensable.
Case: Girardin v. AN Fort Myers Imports LLC, No. 1D2022-1485, 05/08/2024, published.
Facts: Kelly Girardin worked for AN Fort Myers Imports LLC as a sales associate. She fractured her left foot while walking through her employer’s parking lot in December 2020.
AN accepted liability for the injury, as well as her complex regional pain syndrome.
Procedural history: Girardin sought paymen...
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker was entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for his injuries from trying to prevent an air conditioning coil unit from falling.
Case: Britt v. Levgar Equities Corp., No. 30587/19, 05/07/2024, published.
Facts: Chauncey Britt suffered an electric shock while attempting to install an air conditioning coil unit at a property owned by Levgar Equities Corp. and NB Net Solutions 41 Inc.
When the power to the unit was cut off, it fell on Britt’s knees. He injured his back and arm trying to pull the unit upward to preve...
A divided West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the denial of a worker’s request to expand the scope of his claim.
Case: Parker v. Spartan Mining Co., No. 22-603, 05/07/2024, published.
Facts and procedural history: Joseph Parker worked for Spartan Mining Co. He allegedly injured his back at work in a rock fall in October 2017.
A lumbar computed tomography scan performed about a week later revealed degenerative disc disease with spondylosis and mild scoliosis. A thoracic CT scan showed old, stable compression deformities from T8-T10.
A claims administrator for Spartan’s insurance ...
The probability of work-related accidents increases 5% to 6% when temperatures rise above 90 degrees, and the effect of workplace heat is stronger in the southern U.S. and in the construction industry, according to a report released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.
The report, “Impact of Excessive Heat on the Frequency of Work-Related Injuries,” used workers' compensation claim data from 2016 to 2021 across 24 states.
Researchers looked at work injuries caused by direct and indirect heat exposure. Direct heat exposure involves the effect of heat on a w...
A California man pleaded no contest last week to felony insurance fraud and was sentenced to 180 days in jail.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said Christopher Dangelo Green claimed to have been injured while working on a road paving crew, though there were no witnesses to his accident. He gave inconsistent reports to his employer, doctor and insurance company, the DA's Office said.
Additionally, two co-workers said Green hoped to be injured in a "freak accident" at work and that he asked them to hit him with a vehicle because he needed mon...
Lawmakers in New Jersey on Monday read through the latest version of carryover legislation from 2023 that would create a heat standard for workers, calling on businesses to provide water, breaks and shade for those working in high temperatures.
SB 2422, which was referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, calls on the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to create and enforce rules for employers on or before June 1, 2025.
In addition to providing water and shade, the rules would include regular heat monitoring, paid breaks and heat acclimatization practice...
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday announced that it has moved closer to publishing a proposed rule to offer greater workplace heat protection to employees in outdoor and indoor settings.
OSHA said it presented a draft rule during an April meeting of the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health.
The committee subsequently recommended that the agency move forward with an expedited notice of proposed rulemaking.
“OSHA is working aggressively to develop a new regulation that keeps workers safe from the dangers of heat,” Assistant OS...
A divided West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the denial of benefits to a longtime paint technician on his claim that he developed Parkinson’s disease because of his industrial chemical exposure.
Gregory Gwinn worked as a paint technician for various automobile dealerships from 1992 until Feb. 13, 2018.
Gwinn complained of neurological issues and sought treatment with Dr. Barry Vaught in 2010. Vaught noted that Gwinn had trouble with head movements, and other neurological symptoms, beginning at age 7 and increasing in frequency since.
Vaught said the results of a neurological exam...
