A health care worker with pre-existing back problems can’t collect workers’ compensation benefits after injuring her spine while moving patients, the West Virginia Supreme Court found. The court said the medical history detailing her back problems proved there was no new work-related injury that qualified for workers’ compensation benefits. Doctor: Injury was work-related, aggravated prior […]
A crossing guard employed by a town in Illinois can collect workers’ compensation benefits for her injury from a fall in a public parking space, according to an appeals court. The First District Appellate Court of Illinois found that the crossing guard, who slipped on ice in the public parking space as she left her […]
An appeals court upheld the denial of loss-of-use benefits for a widow who filed a claim for the brief time her husband lost the use of his limbs, eyes and ears from a brain injury before his death. The Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals found a denial was warranted since the husband lost the […]
A widow can continue to pursue death benefits under Louisiana’s Heart and Lung Act after her husband, a firefighter, died from COVID-19. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for the State of Louisiana found that a trial court’s prior decision was erroneous because it concluded that COVID-19-initiated acute hypoxic respiratory failure wasn’t covered by the […]
Can an employee with a back injury and a history of scoliosis collect disability retirement benefits? A California appeals court said she could if there was a real connection between the injury and her job. California’s Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate District found there was a measurable connection between the worker’s back injury […]
A worker injured in an unwitnessed fall can collect workers’ compensation benefits because medical evidence supported his account of the incident. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals of Louisiana ruled that a workers’ compensation judge didn’t err in awarding benefits to the worker since the evidence supported his story, which the employer argued was false. […]
A worker who sustained a hernia at work can collect workers’ compensation benefits since the “definite proof” he provided was of high enough quality, according to the Maryland Court of Appeals. Definite proof in hernia cases refers to the quality of evidence, the appeals court found, and doesn’t “elevate the claimant’s burden of persuasion to […]
A Louisiana appeals court upheld a decision granting workers’ compensation benefits to an injured worker even though he failed to initially report the injury and despite there being no witnesses. The Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit of Louisiana found that the worker, who suffered the injury during an on-the-job medical emergency, could collect […]
An official with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) noted three troubling workers’ compensation trends that could affect injured or sick workers. Christopher Godfrey, director of the DOL Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, noted on the DOL’s blog that the number of workers covered by workers’ compensation has decreased, states are paying fewer total benefits […]
