Disability Benefits Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Workers' Compensation Defense

Garrett v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

In a recent case, Garrett v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (Garrett II), the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed the Industrial Commission’s determination that a claimant was not disabled due to her failure to engage in a reasonable job search. This case was before the North Carolina Court of Appeals a second time.

In its first hearing on the matter, the Industrial Commission concluded the claimant’s neck injury was compensable and awarded her total temporary disability compensation (TTD) for a 14-month period. Both parties …

October 7, 2019 Disability Benefits / permanent partial disability / Temporary Total Disability (TTD)

Leveraging Compromises in the New York Workers’ Compensation System

Compromises are a vital and frequent part of the workers’ compensation litigation process. However, one should take care to avoid negotiating them out of habit. With two doctors giving irreconcilable opinions, parties will often agree to split benefits straight down the middle in lieu of litigation.

Sometimes, such as when both parties concede partial disability and are within a close margin, this is a helpful way to allay costs of depositions and further court appearances. Often, upon hearing the word “compromise,” a judge will automatically …

October 7, 2019 Disability Benefits / General

Missing Check: The Status of the Law

Oftentimes, when parties in a workers’ compensation matter agree to settle or when the claimant is entitled to certain indemnity benefits, the carrier sends payment to the claimant by mailing a check to an address provided by the claimant. There are situations, though, when the check goes missing or is stolen, perhaps in transit or at the address provided by the claimant. This begs the question – what are the rights and obligations of the carrier under the law?

In prior stolen check cases, the …

September 3, 2019 Disability Benefits / New York

The Effect of Immigration on New York Workers’ Compensation

New York state has one of the largest undocumented immigrant populations in the nation, coming in fourth behind Texas, California, and Florida. According to the most recent study taken by Pew Research Center in 2016, 725,000 unauthorized immigrants lived in New York state. Although it is illegal for employers to hire immigrant workers who are not documented and authorized to work in the United States, whether it is intentional or not, employers continue to hire undocumented immigrant workers every day.

When undocumented workers are injured …

August 12, 2019 Connecticut / Disability Benefits

Construction Sites, Injured Contractors & Workers’ Compensation

In Connecticut, the “traditional” rules of workers’ compensation are relatively well established. A restaurant employee cuts his finger preparing food on shift; a home health aide pulls a muscle in her back while moving a patient on shift; a delivery truck driver gets into a motor vehicle accident while delivering to a customer. But what if you are a contractor or subcontractor on a job/site and get injured? Do you know who your direct employer is? Is there workers’ compensation coverage? For the most part, …

July 29, 2019 Disability Benefits / General

Causal Relationship for Preauthorized Surgeries: Questioning Causality

It is easy to accept preauthorized surgeries as a foregone conclusion where the site of surgery is established and the procedure is approved by the Medical Treatment Guidelines. However, it shouldn’t be.

Earlier in 2019, Goldberg Segalla’s workers’ compensation team won an appeal on this very issue. The claimant underwent preauthorized left shoulder surgery on a file established to the left shoulder for an injury that occurred in 2016. However, the claimant underwent left shoulder surgery secondary to a 2004 motor vehicle accident prior to …

July 22, 2019 Disability Benefits / New York

The Biggest Loser: How to Handle Requests for Causally Related Bariatric Bypass Surgery

Under the New York State workers’ compensation law, an employer or carrier “shall promptly provide for an injured employee such medical, surgical, optometric or other attendance of treatment . . . for such period as the nature of the injury or the process of recovery may require.” This is a pretty general requirement, but it opens the door to a new question: what happens when an injured worker requires back surgery, but is not a candidate because he or she is overweight? They have two …

June 24, 2019 Disability Benefits / New York

Credit on SLU Payments and Recovery of a Third-Party Action Lien: Why They Live Together in Perfect Harmony

In New York, Workers’ Compensation Law Section 15(4-a) provides a carrier the right to take a credit against a subsequently determined schedule award for disability payments that have already been received for the same injury. This is relatively common knowledge in the world of workers’ compensation, and this credit is never met with much pushback from claimant’s counsel – unless, of course, a third-party action is involved.

Under Workers’ Compensation Law Section 29, the carrier is permitted both a recovery of benefits previously paid – …

June 3, 2019 Disability Benefits / New York

Raising Self-Limitation on Reduced Earnings: A New Approach

How many times has your attorney heard this whispered after raising labor market attachment: “Just go get any job out there and they’ll pay you the difference – any job will do.” If you work two hours a week, you’re attached and owed reduced earnings. This scenario came up during a recent litigation on the issue of labor market attachment and entitlement to awards. In that case, the claimant’s attorney maintained that the claimant was “working for someone he met online,” taking care of their …