Workers' Compensation Defense

July 8, 2019 Medical Expenses / New Jersey

The Importance of Investigating a Petitioner’s Medical History and How It Can Help Employers Save Money

Upon the filing of a New Jersey workers’ compensation claim petition, it is extremely important to thoroughly investigate the history of the alleged injured worker to ensure you attain the best possible outcome and to prevent unnecessary expenses. This is a relatively well-known strategy. However, in a rush to close or settle a matter, this strategy can sometimes be overlooked, which can result in significant costs to an employer.

In a recent unpublished opinion by the New Jersey Appellate Division, the appellate court affirmed the …

July 8, 2019 Medical Expenses / North Carolina

Directing Medical Treatment in Compensable Claims in North Carolina

An increasingly litigated issue involves an employer’s right to direct and provide medical treatment. As a reminder, when an employer accepts a claim as compensable, it is the employer’s right to direct medical treatment. This has long been established by North Carolina precedent and statutes, including N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 97-25. Medical treatment, or medical compensation, is broadly defined by N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 97-2(19). Medical compensation includes “medical, surgical, hospital, nursing, and rehabilitative services, including, but not limited to, attendant care services prescribed by …

July 1, 2019 Connecticut / Medical Expenses

2019 Mileage Rates Reach Second Highest in 20 Years

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued its annual mileage rates for 2019. This year, the mileage rate has increased from 54 cents per mile to 58 cents per mile, which reflects a 6.42 percent increase from 2018. A review of the mileage rates from 1997 to present show rates as low as 31 cents (1999) and as high as 58 cents (July to December 2008). The rate has only exceeded the current 58 cents on one occasion, and it was only a temporary, mid-year …

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 24, 2019 New Jersey / New York

The Interstate Medical Provider Claim: Unsettled Jurisdictional Questions Open the Floodgates in New Jersey

As overall filings in the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Courts have been falling, one particular type of claim is on the rise: the Medical Provider Application for Payment or Reimbursement of Medical Payment. The statutory authority for these “Medical Provider Claim Petitions” (MCPs) is found in a single sentence in the depths of New Jersey Statutes Annotated 34:15-15: “[e]xclusive jurisdiction for any disputed medical charge arising from any claim for compensation for a work-related injury or illness shall be vested in the division.” The precise …

June 17, 2019 Legislation / Maryland / Medical Marijuana

Maryland Legislature Says “Yea” To Additional Medical Presumptions, “Nay” To Medical Cannabis Reform in Workers’ Compensation Cases

The 2019 Maryland legislative session only produced one substantive law change that impacts the Maryland Workers’ Compensation framework. Additionally, two bills that did not get passed also sent conspicuous messages to practitioners within the bar.

The lone bill implicating Maryland Workers’ Compensation that was passed into Law is House Bill 595, which was approved by Governor Larry Hogan on April 30, 2019. The bill serves as an amendment to Labor & Employment Article Section 9-503 which addresses medical presumptions in workers’ compensation cases. Specifically, the …

June 4, 2019 New York / permanent partial disability

The Carriers’ New Tool: Jacobi Medical Center

There are very few concepts under the New York Workers’ Compensation system that are in favor of the employer and carrier. Once a claim is established, employers and carriers have few tools on their side to even the playing field in the claimant-friendly world of workers’ compensation. In appropriate situations, for example, employers and carriers can litigate the issues of labor market attachment, fraud under WCL 114(a), and further causally related disability.

In February 2019, a board panel decided the case of Jacobi Medical Center…

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 …

May 28, 2019 Disability Benefits / Illinois

Conflict Over Neutral Risk Work Injuries

Neutral risk injuries have become a contentious topic in Illinois Workers’ Compensation law. In Illinois Senate Bill 12, the legislature attempted to codify recent trends that courts have taken by calling for an analysis of whether an injured worker’s employment quantitatively or qualitatively contributes to a neutral risk to determine a compensable injury. The First District Appellate Court of Illinois applied these factors in Noonan v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission and determined that a neutral risk is compensable where the employee proves he was qualitatively …